The Effects of n-3 LC-PUFA Supplementation on Hand-Eye Coordination

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of n-3 LC-PUFA (omega3 long-chain unsaturated fatty acid) supplementation on hand-eye coordination. This research was a single-blind placebo-controlled trial. Fifty three individuals (10,89±1,57 years old) who had never played tennis before took part in the study. They were randomly allocated to three groups. Omega group received n-3 LC-PUFA (670 mg · day-1; n=21); placebo group received olive oil (670 mg · day-1; n=18) during 16 weeks; and control group. All of the groups (omega, placebo and control) joined to the tennis trainings which involved 3 hours per week for 16 weeks. Individual's hand-eye coordination was evaluated before and after 16 weeks tennis trainings with two hand-eye coordination test battery. The data were evaluated with repeated measures analysis of variance and also with paired simples T-Test. The results show that there were no significant differences between groups (p>0,05), but omega (p=0,004) and placebo (p=0,006) groups has significant improvement on their hand-eye coordination in spite of control group (p=0,086). Consequently, it can be said that n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation might be improve hand-eye coordination of children but tennis training also efficient on hand-eye coordination.