Measuring outcome from vestibular rehabilitation, Part I: qualitative development of a new self-report measure

Morris, Anna.E., Lutman, Mark.E. and Yardley, Lucy (2008) Measuring outcome from vestibular rehabilitation, Part I: qualitative development of a new self-report measure. International Journal of Audiology, 47 (4), 169-77. (doi:10.1080/14992020701843129).

Abstract

Research suggests that Vestibular Rehabilitation (VR) is an effective treatment for dizziness, but there is currently no measure specifically designed to assess treatment outcome. A review of existing self-report measures of dizziness indicates that no measure has been designed for longitudinal application and all suffer from limitations which restrict their usefulness in measuring VR outcome. A need for a psychometrically robust patient-oriented measure of quality of life benefit from VR is identified. The aim of the present study was to explore dimensions relevant to VR with a view to developing a measure of outcome. Eighteen adults receiving VR participated in interviews about the quality of life impact of dizziness. Qualitative analysis revealed 64 themes describing self-perceived quality of life impact. Themes were developed into potential questionnaire items and 35 were selected to represent the quality of life impact of dizziness in a prototype questionnaire. A quarter of items in the prototype questionnaire refer to issues not addressed by existing measures; the remaining items draw together issues covered by the range of questionnaires currently in use.

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Contributors

Author: Lucy Yardley

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