Performance on the Useful Field of View Test in College Students With and Without a Concussion.

Research Objectives: The Useful Field of View (UFOV) test is often used for predicting the ability to drive safely in older adults or after brain injury by assessing visual attention, however, it has not been explored extensively in the context of concussion. Thus, the primary objective was to compare UFOV performance between 1) athlete status (non-athlete v collegiate athletes) and 2) concussion status (concussion v control).

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Clinical Research Laboratory.

Participants: 76 college students consisting of 23 healthy student-athletes (18.7±0.9 years; 78.3% female), 25 healthy non-athletes (20.3±1.5 years; 64.0% female), and 24 injured non-athletes (20.1±1.6 years; 58.3% female).

Interventions: Not Applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: All participants completed a UFOV assessment, which consists of the following subtests: processing speed (PS), divided attention (DA), and selective attention (SA). Injured participants completed a UFOV assessment at their first post-concussion medical visit (range: 1-12 days). We used Mann-Whitney U tests to compare UFOV PS, DA, and SA outcomes (ms) between: 1) athlete status; and 2) concussion status.

Results: Among those that were not concussed, non-athletes performed better on DA than collegiate athletes (32.76±11.74ms and 39.46±10.68ms, respectively; p=.030), but performed similarly on PS (p=1.000) & SA (p=.343). Non-athlete UFOV performance did not differ between the concussion and control groups (p=.449-1.000).

Conclusions: Non-athletes perform better on UFOV than healthy student-athletes. UFOV performance was similar between non-athletes who are healthy and those within 12 days of suffering a concussion. Athlete status should be considered when interpreting UFOV performance. UFOV may not be able to determine when college-aged individuals with a concussion can drive safely. Additional study of UFOV performance is needed in injured collegiate student-athletes. Future research should consider evaluating differences acutely post-concussion ( < 72 hours from injury).

Author(s) Disclosures: This research was partially supported by the Andee's Army Foundation and by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of The National Institutes of Health (UL1TR002378). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.