EVALUATION OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH VESTIBULAR DISEASE USING DISEASE-SPECIFIC AND GENERAL OUTCOME MEASURES

Background and Purpose. The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is a co ndition-specific health status measure for persons with vestibular dis ease, and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) is a generic health status assessment. The purposes of this st udy were (1) to describe the relationship between the DHI and the SF-3 6, (2) to examine the reliability and responsiveness of these measures for persons in a vestibular rehabilitation program, and (3) to compar e health-related quality of life between individuals with vestibular d isease and the general population. Subjects. Ninety-five patients, age d 25 to 88 years ((X) over bar=57.0, SD=14.9), were assessed. Methods. To determine reliability, 20 subjects completed both questionnaires t wice, 24 to 48 hours apart. Thirty-one subjects completed both questio nnaires before and after 6 to 8 weeks of vestibular rehabilitation to establish responsiveness. To establish the relationship between the tw o assessment tools, 95 subjects completed both questionnaires. Results . Each test was moderately to highly reliable (intraclass correlation coefficients [2,1]=.64-.95), but the tests were poorly to moderately c orrelated to each other (r=.11-.71). The DHI was more responsive to ch ange than the SF-36. The SF-36 scores of individuals were lower than s cores of the general population. Conclusion and Discussion. The DHI an d the SF-36 provide reliable and responsive measurements, but they app ear to provide different information about the health status of patien ts with vestibular disease. Compared with the general population, pati ents with vestibular disease had lower scores for health-related quali ty of life, but these scores improved after 6 to 8 weeks of treatment. Future studies should clarify whether this improved health status is due to vestibular rehabilitation.