Preseason Vestibular Ocular Motor Screening in Children and Adolescents

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to examine vestibular/ocular motor screening (VOMS) test performance in a sample of healthy youth ice hockey players. A particular focus was to investigate the potential effects of age and pre-existing health conditions, including concussion history, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability (LD), headaches/migraines, and depression/anxiety on preseason baseline VOMS performance, including the near point of convergence (NPC) distance. Design: Cross-sectional cohort. Setting: Outpatient physiotherapy clinic. Participants: Three hundred eighty-seven male youth hockey players, with an average age of 11.9 years (SD = 2.2, range = 8-17), completed the VOMS and responded to self- or parent-reported demographic and medical history questionnaires during preseason baseline assessments. Independent Variables Assessed: Age, sex, and mental and physical health history including ADHD, headaches, depression, anxiety, migraine, and LD. Outcome Measure: Vestibular/ocular motor screening. Results: The large majority of boys scored within normal limits on the VOMS, ie, they reported no symptom provocation of more than 2 points on any VOMS subset (89%) and had a normal NPC distance, ie,
Source: Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research