Incidence of Dizziness in the Elderly: Correlation with ocular motor, optokinetic and postural function

The aims of the study were to 1) determine the incidence of dizziness in a sample of elderly participants, without history of diagnosed vestibular dis orders, recruited from the community; 2) measure ocular motor, optokinetic and postural function in a sample of dizzy, elderly participants in compari son to non-dizzy participants of similar age. On the basis of their responses to the Senior Citizen's Vestibular Question naire, 3/35 (8.6%) elderly participants (60 years or older) were suspected to have a neurological disorder, and 5/35 (14.3%) reported experiencing diz ziness on more than one occasion over the past month. Data from these 8 par ticipants were pooled for comparison with non-dizzy participants of similar age. The timeconstant for gaze-holding to the right tie. the time taken fo r the gaze position to drift centrally by 63% following extinction of the l ights), but not to the left, was significantly shorter in the dizzy group c ompared to the comparison group. Postural instability was not significantly different between the dizzy group and the comparison group for the first 5 conditions of the Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction and Balance(CTSIB); however, in the 6th condition, in which visual, proprioceptive and somatos ensory cues are reduced, only 1/8 participants (12.5%) in the dizzy group c ould be tested compared to 12/27 participants (44.4%) in the comparison gro up. The latencies to Stage 3 (but not Stage 2) circularvection (CV) were hi gher for the dizzy group; however, only 4 dizzy participants could be teste d because of the severity of their condition. These results support the hyp othesis that dizziness is a major problem amongst the elderly community and suggest that it may be associated with specific impairments of the vestibu lar reflexes.