Investigation and Analysis of Corneal Morphology in Young Divers

To investigate the corneal morphology of adolescent diving athletes and analyze the related influencing factors. Corneal topographic maps were taken of 42 young athletes (19 males and 23 females, aged 9–17 years) from the diving team of Shenzhen Sports School, and then three morphological data of corneal curvature, astigmatism, and thickness were measured based on the topographic maps. A study was conducted to analyze the influence of diving on corneal morphology by comparing with the reference data of children of the same age in the literature, and statistically analyzing the relationship between different genders, ages, exercise levels, training time, and corneal morphology. The radius of the corneal curvature of athletes was significantly smaller than that of children of the same age (P < 0.01). There were statistical differences in the corneal curvatures of athletes in different age groups and training time groups (P < 0.05), and there were also differences in corneal thickness in different training time groups (P < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in corneal morphology among gender and exercise level groups. Diving can affect the corneal morphology of adolescent athletes, and the radius of corneal curvature is significantly lower than that of children of the same age. Corneal curvature is related to athletes' age and training time, and corneal thickness is affected by training time. Attention should be paid to the changes in the corneal morphology of diving athletes.