Learning Effects of Repetitive Administrations of the Sensory Organization Test in Healthy Young Adults

Wrisley DM, Stephens MJ, Mosley S, Wojnowski A, Duffy J, Burkard R. Learning effects of repetitive administrations of the Sensory Organization Test in healthy young adults. Objectives: To evaluate the learning effect of multiple administrations of the Sensory Organization Test (SOT) on performance and to begin to establish clinical meaningful change scores for the SOT. Design: Descriptive case series. Setting: University-affiliated clinic. Participants: Healthy young adults (6 men, 7 women; mean age, 24±4y). Intervention: All subjects performed the standardized SOT using the SMART EquiTest 5 times over a 2-week period, and 1 month later. Main Outcome Measure: Composite and individual SOT test condition standardized equilibrium scores. Results: Test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient model 2,3) of the composite (.67) and equilibrium score (range, .35-.79) were fair to good. Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant (P<.05) increase in the composite and equilibrium scores for conditions 4, 5, and 6 over the 5 sessions that plateaued after the third session, and were retained at 1 month. The 95% confidence interval for the composite score change from session 1 to session 4, the plateau of the learning effect, was 3.9 to 8.1. Conclusions: Although the findings of this study would indicate that multiple baseline measures are desirable for the more challenging conditions, a composite change of greater than 8 points would indicate change due to rehabilitation.