TY - JOUR AU - Güzel, Nevin Atalay AU - Medeni, Özge Çınar AU - ACAK, Mahmut AU - Savaş, Seyfi PY - 2016/04/10 TI - Postural Control of The Elite Deaf Football Players JF - Journal of Athletic Performance and Nutrition; Vol 3 No 1 (2016): Journal of Athletic Performance and Nutrition KW - N2 - Childhood hearing impairment is a common chronic condition that may have a major impact on postural control. The aim of this study was to determine the postural control of the elite deaf football players and compare normal-hearing football players and sedentary deaf controls. Eighteen deaf football players, ten deaf sedentary controls, ten normal-hearing sedentary controls were included in study. Postural stability was assessed both on bilateral stance and on single-limb stance with Biodex-Balance System on static surface, in eyes-open condition. Limits of stability testing was performed on bilateral stance.   Statistically significant results were found in medial-lateral index (MLI) score of dominant and non-dominant legs among three groups respectively (p=0.027, p=0.045). In limits of stability testing significant differences were found for overall direction (p=0.008) and right direction (p=0.017) among three groups. There was a significant difference in MLI score of non-dominant leg (p=0.012) and in right direction of limits of stability test (p=0.016) between deaf athletes and deaf controls. Also there were significant differences found in MLI score of dominant legs (p=0.023) and overall (p<0.001) and right (p=0.008) direction of limits of stability test between deaf controls and healthy controls. We found that deaf football players balance abilities were better than deaf sedentaries in some parameters. No difference was found between deaf football players and healthy sedentaries. This study demonstrates the importance of improving deaf children's postural control, which might contribute positively to their sports participation. UR - http://journalapn.com/index.php/ojs/article/view/42