The influence of caffeine on the sensory organization test

Clinicians often request that patients refrain from consuming caffeinated beverages 24 h before vestibular function testing. However, there is limited research regarding how caffeine may affect the results of these tests. The sensory organization test (SOT) evaluates how well an individual is able to maintain his or her balance during several different conditions that manipulate vestibular, visual, or somatosensory information.

This study evaluated whether caffeine consumption affects the results of the SOT in a group of healthy young adults.

Individuals were evaluated under two conditions: (1) after consuming ∼300 mg of caffeine before testing, and (2) without consuming a caffeinated beverage for 24 h before testing. Regular caffeine intake and caffeine withdrawal symptoms were assessed in these individuals. Participants were stratified into a no/low or a moderate/high caffeine intake group through the use of a self-reported 1-week caffeine diary.

Thirty healthy control participants (mean age = 23.28 yr; males = 9) without any history of vestibular or balance impairment participated in the present study.

The NeuroCom SMART Equitest was used to administer the SOT, whereas paired t-tests, completed with IBM SPSS Statistics 20, were used to analyze the data for statistical significance.

Analysis of the data revealed a statistically significant difference between the caffeine and no-caffeine sessions during (1) condition 5 (C5): eyes closed, platform sway-referenced; and (2) the total composite score. Statistically significant differences were also noted for the vestibular and somatosensory preference ratios. In general, the participants performed better (i.e., higher equilibrium/composite scores) during the caffeine session. When significant results were found, the participants were stratified by weekly caffeine intake into a no/low caffeine (LC) intake group versus a moderate/high caffeine (HC) intake group. After this stratification, a statistically significant difference remained for C5, the composite score, and the somatosensory/vestibular preference ratios for the LC intake group, whereas no statistically significant results were found in the HC intake group. In addition, further analysis revealed less of a change in the equilibrium score as the amount of weekly caffeine intake increased. Despite these significant results, the mean differences were small in magnitude, and C5, the composite score, as well as the sensory analysis ratios, fell within normal limits for all participants during both sessions.

The ingestion of caffeine did not produce a clinically significant effect in healthy young control participants. Future research is needed to determine if these same results occur in older adults, or in individuals with a history of vestibular impairment.