Motion Sickness Susceptibility and Baseline Vestibular and Ocular-Motor Performance in Adolescent Athletes.

Context: High school athletes with a history of motion sickness susceptibility exhibit higher baseline vestibular and ocular-motor scores than those without a history of motion sickness susceptibility.

Objective: To examine the effects of motion sickness susceptibility on baseline vestibular and ocular-motor functioning, neurocognitive performance, and symptom scores.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Preseason concussion testing.

Patients Or Other Participants: A convenience sample of high school athletes (N = 308, age = 15.13 ± 1.21 years) involved in a variety of sports.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening, computerized neurocognitive assessment, symptom scale, and Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire-Short Form (MSSQ-S).

Results: Participants were categorized into 3 groups based on a median split of the scores (eg, NONE, LOW, and HIGH). The LOW (n = 95) and HIGH (n = 92) groups (ie, MSSQ-S score > 0) were 2.64 times more likely (χ = 7.94, = .01, 95% confidence interval = 1.32, 5.26) to have baseline Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening scores larger than the clinical cutoffs for the NONE group (n = 70). No between-groups main effects were present for the NONE (n = 52), LOW (n 89), and HIGH (n 90) MSSQ-S groups for verbal ( = .09, .91, η = .001) and visual ( = .15, .86, η = .001) memory, processing speed ( = .78, .46, η = .007), or reaction time ( = 2.21, .11, η = .002). The HIGH group exhibited higher total baseline symptom scores than the LOW ( 3325.50, = -1.99, .05, .15) and NONE ( 1647.50, = -2.83, .005, .24) groups.

Conclusions: Motion sickness should be considered a preexisting risk factor that might influence specific domains of the baseline concussion assessment and postinjury management.