Affiliations: Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Choongheon Lee, B.S., 303 Barkley Memorial Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0738, USA. Tel.: +1 402 802 0978; Fax: +1 402 472 7697; E-mail: clee@huskers.unl.edu
Abstract: The gaze stabilization test (GST) is used not only in examining gaze stability required by daily life activities, but also in identifying unilateral or bilateral vestibular deficits. However, a computerized GST (CGST) is an expensive assessment, which cannot be commonly used in most clinics. Validation of low-cost and low-technical clinical tests is required to decrease health care costs. The purpose of this study was to measure the accuracy of a new GST (NGST) in a cohort of healthy young adults with no history of vestibular or balance disorders, as well as the test-retest reliability when re-assessed 5–7 days. Subjects identified a visual target while actively and passively performing head movements in the yaw plane at an initial screening velocity of 130 degs/sec. The main outcome was a strong positive correlation in both active and passive NGST head movement amplitude degree and head movement velocity. Passive head movements had good accuracy (85%) to identify healthy individuals with no history of vestibular or balance disorders. In addition, the NGST has good test-retest reliability in head movement amplitude degree (r=0.795) and head movement velocity (r=0.797) of passive NGST within two testing sessions.
