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, <5 cm (78%). The individual VOMS subtests had low abnormality rates, and demographic and pre-existing health conditions, such as age, headache or migraine history, previous neurodevelopmental conditions, or mental health problems, were not associated with clinically meaningful symptom provocation during the VOMS.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a low rate of abnormal findings for the individual VOMS subtests, with the exception of NPC distance, among male youth hockey players during preseason assessment.