Acquired brain injury, visual attention, and the useful field of view test: A pilot study

Calvanio R, Williams R, Burke DT, Mello J, Lepak P, Al-Adawi S, Shah MK. Acquired brain injury, visual attention, and the Useful Field of View Test: a pilot study. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004:85:474-8. Objective To compare the findings of the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test with those of conventional neuropsychologic tests to determine the utility of the UFOV test as a measure of attention in a population with brain injury. Design Cohort study. Setting Freestanding rehabilitation hospital. Participants Fifteen inpatients with severe brain injury. Interventions Not applicable. Main outcome measures UFOV test, FIMT instrument, length of stay (LOS), and standard neuropsychologic testing. Results The UFOV subtest UF2 correlated strongly with the other 2 subtests, UF1 and UF3. The UF2 subtest correlated most strongly with paper and pencil tests of visual attention. The UF2 predicted 52% of the FIM change and 60% of the LOS variance, second only to admission FIM score, which predicted 75% and 80% of FIM change and LOS variance, respectively. Conclusions Among the patients in our study, the UFOV test can be used to determine the visual divided attention of patients with acquired brain injury. The results also showed that the UFOV test correlated with LOS and FIM change in patients with acquired brain injury recovering in a rehabilitation facility. Because the UFOV test is much more quickly administered and scored than other measures of attention and divided attention, these results suggest that the UFOV test may provide an easy means to measure a critical variable in the population with head injury.