King-Devick Test Reliability in National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletes: A National Collegiate Athletic Association-Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Report. J Athl Train 2019 Dec;54(12):1241-1246
Date
10/17/2019Pubmed ID
31618072Pubmed Central ID
PMC6922566DOI
10.4085/1062-6050-219-18Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85076876567 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 18 CitationsAbstract
CONTEXT: The King-Devick (KD) test has received considerable attention in the literature as an emerging concussion assessment. However, important test psychometric properties remain to be addressed in large-scale independent studies.
OBJECTIVE: To assess (1) test-retest reliability between trials, (2) test-retest reliability between years 1 and 2, and (3) reliability of the 2 administration modes.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
SETTING: Collegiate athletic training facilities.
PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3248 intercollegiate student-athletes participated in year 1 (male = 55.3%, age = 20.2 ± 2.3 years, height = 1.78 ± 0.11 m, weight = 80.7 ± 21.0 kg) and 833 participated in both years.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Time, in seconds, to complete the KD error free. The KD test reliability was assessed between trials and between annual tests over 2 years and stratified by test modality (spiral-bound cards [n = 566] and tablet [n = 264]).
RESULTS: The KD test was reliable between trials (trial 1 = 43.2 ± 8.3 seconds, trial 2 = 40.8 ± 7.8 seconds; intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] (2,1) = 0.888, P < .001), between years (year 1 = 40.8 ± 7.4 seconds, year 2 = 38.7 ± 7.7 seconds; ICC [2,1] = 0.827, P < .001), and for both spiral-bound cards (ICC [2,1] = 0.834, P < .001) and tablets (ICC [2,1] = 0.827, P < .001). The mean change between trials for a single test was -2.4 ± 3.8 seconds. Although most athletes improved from year 1 to year 2, 27.1% (226 of 883) of participants demonstrated worse (slower) KD times (3.2 ± 3.9 seconds) in year 2.
CONCLUSIONS: The KD test was reliable between trials and years and when stratified by modality. A small improvement of 2 seconds was identified with annual retesting, likely due to a practice effect; however, 27% of athletes displayed slowed performance from year 1 to year 2. These results suggest that the KD assessment was a reliable test with modest learning effects over time and that the assessment modality did not adversely affect baseline reliability.
Author List
Breedlove KM, Ortega JD, Kaminski TW, Harmon KG, Schmidt JD, Kontos AP, Clugston JR, Chrisman SPD, McCrea MA, McAllister TW, Broglio SP, Buckley TAAuthor
Michael McCrea PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAthletes
Athletic Injuries
Attention
Brain Concussion
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Learning
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Reproducibility of Results
Sports
Sports Medicine
Students
Universities
Young Adult
