Activity Limitations in Concussed and Non-Concussed Children with Oculomotor Disorders

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science

Abstract

Purpose : Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) capture a patient’s own perspective on how disorders impact their quality of life (QoL). Vergence, accommodative, and saccadic disorders (referred to as oculomotor disorders [OMD]) are common in school-age children and are even more common after concussion. Children with and without a history of concussion, who have OMD, were interviewed to develop a PROM. The activity limitations they reported are presented here.

Methods : A phenomenological qualitative approach, including a method of constant comparison, was used to explore the life experiences of 8- to 17-year-old children with OMD, with and without concussion. Participants from five US sites participated in qualitative interviews or focus groups guided by a semi-structured interview protocol. Sessions were recorded and transcribed verbatim; responses were coded deductively and inductively in NVivo (v1.6.1) by trained site-specific coders. The generated codes were collated to form an exhaustive codebook that coders used to revisit their analysis for gaps and intercoder-reliability. New codes that emerged were added until data saturation was achieved (meaning no additional unique codes emerged) for each QoL domain. The QoL impacts reported were conceptualized into QoL themes.

Results : 83 children (mean age 12.3 ± 2.9 years; 32 with concussion history) were enrolled. Eleven QoL themes emerged, with the greatest number of items reported for activity limitations (60 items). Children reported activity limitations related to school activities (e.g., difficulty with reading small print, keeping one’s place when reading, understanding or remembering what’s been read, working with columns of numbers, completing schoolwork, using devices or with online work, doing homework, seeing the whiteboard, copying things from the board, and/or writing in a straight line). Children also reported activity limitations related to athletic activities (e.g., difficulty tracking the ball, playing on a sports team, taking part in track and field, dance, or martial arts). Activity limitations related to arts and crafts, playing musical instruments or reading music, cooking, and driving or traveling in a car were also reported.

Conclusions : Children with OMD, with and without a history of concussion, reported a range of activity limitations, highlighting it as one of the major QoL domains affected.

Volume

66

Issue

8

First Page

1125

Comments

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology ARVO Annual Meeting, May 4-8, 2025, Salt Lake City, UT

Helen DeVos Children's Hospital

Last Page

1125

ISSN

1552-5783

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