Pre‐race tear volume and dry‐eye symptomatology in recreational middle‐aged male half‐marathoners: A pilot study

Abstract

Aims/Purpose: To describe the tear volume and dry‐eye symptomatology in recreational middle‐aged male recreational half‐marathoners, 24‐h pre‐race.Methods: Twelve male recreational athletes (age: 43.1 ± 9.3 years; Body Mass Index (BMI): 24.2 ± 2.9 kg m−2) were recruited among participants in the Madrid half‐marathon 2023. 24 h before the race the volunteers responded the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI), the Dry‐Eye 5 (DEQ5) and reported their estimated time of finishing. Immediately after, the Schirmer test was performed in the right eye. Post hoc, the participants were categorized in two main groups, depending on their estimated time of finishing: a high‐performance group (HP, n = 6), that included the volunteers with an estimated time of finishing below 1 h and 40 min; and, a low‐performance group, (LP, n = 6) that included the runners with an estimated time of finishing longer than 1 h and 40 min. Correlational analyses were performed, and the unpaired Student's t‐test was used to look for between groups differences.Results: Overall, no correlations were found between any of the studied variables. Similarly, no differences were noticed between groups in the mean age (39.6 ± 11 vs. 46.5 ± 6.6 years; p = 0.222; HP vs. LP) or BMI (22.7 ± 3.1 vs. 25.6 ± 2.1 kg m−2; p = 0.096; HP vs. LP). However, although non‐statistically significant, the HP group showed a trend to have a lower Schirmer test value than the LP group (4.6 ± 2.1 vs. 14.2 ± 12; p = 0.083; HP vs. LP). In contrast, no differences were noticed among groups in the OSDI (14.2 ± 12.3 vs. 15.2 ± 9.8; p = 0.886; HP vs. LP) or DEQ5 (7 ± 3 vs. 5.6 ± 3.2; p = 0.589, Mann–Whitney; HP vs. LP) scores.Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that despite having a very low tear volume, high‐performance middle‐aged recreational runners do not experience higher dry‐eye associated symptomatology.