• Phillip R Worts, Philip Schatz, and Scott O Burkhart.
• Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, College of Human Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
• Am J Sports Med. 2018 Jul 1; 46 (8): 2004-2010.

BackgroundThe Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) and King-Devick (K-D) test are tools designed to assess ocular or vestibular function after a sport-related concussion.PurposeTo determine the test-retest reliability and rate of false-positive results of the VOMS and K-D test in a healthy athlete sample.Study DesignCohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2.MethodsForty-five healthy high school student-athletes (mean age, 16.11 ± 1.43 years) completed self-reported demographics and medical history and were administered the VOMS and K-D test during rest on day 1 (baseline). The VOMS and K-D test were administered again once during rest (prepractice) and once within 5 minutes of removal from sport practice on day 2 (removal). The Borg rating of perceived exertion scale was administered at removal. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to determine test-retest reliability on the K-D test and the average near point of convergence (NPC) distance on the VOMS. Level of agreement was used to examine VOMS symptom provocation over the 3 administration times. Multivariate base rates were used to determine the rate of false-positive results when simultaneously considering multiple clinical cutoffs.ResultsTest-retest reliability of total time on the K-D test (0.91 [95% CI, 0.86-0.95]) and NPC distance (0.91 [95% CI, 0.85-0.95]) was high across the 3 administration times. Level of agreement ranged from 48.9% to 88.9% across all 3 times for the VOMS items. Using established clinical cutoffs, false-positive results occurred in 2% of the sample using the VOMS at removal and 36% using the K-D test.ConclusionThe VOMS displayed a false-positive rate of 2% in this high school student-athlete cohort. The K-D test's false-positive rate was 36% while maintaining a high level of test-retest reliability (0.91). Results from this study support future investigation of VOMS administration in an acutely injured high school athletic sample. Going forward, the VOMS may be more stable than other neurological and symptom report screening measures and less vulnerable to false-positive results than the K-D test.

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