Understanding Dizzy Patients a Cross-Sectional Analysis of Attitudes toward Diagnosis, Providers, and Treatment

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate patients’ attitudes regarding their dizziness, provider capabilities, and receptiveness toward treatment. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Tertiary care vestibular clinic. Patients: Ages 18 years or older, fluent in English, and who presented with a chief complaint of dizziness or vertigo. Intervention(s): N/A. Main Outcomes Measure(s): Non-validated questionnaire surveying patients’ beliefs regarding the cause of their dizziness, likelihood of successful treatment, and openness to various treatment modalities Results: Patients were asked to complete an online non-validated survey regarding their dizziness prior to being evaluated in neurotology clinic. About 67 surveys were completed between January 2017 and September 2018. A majority of patients attributed their dizziness to their ears (n = 47, 70%), followed by the brain (n = 29, 43%). Most subjects chose “neither agree nor disagree” about whether their provider could identify the cause of their dizziness (27%). Most subjects also chose “neither agree nor disagree” that their dizziness would resolve with treatment (31%). These attitudes were not influenced by demographics, dizziness severity, anxiety, depression, or quality of life on multivariate ordinal regression modeling. Conclusions: Patients who experience dizziness have neutral attitudes with regards to believing that their provider will be able to identify the cause of their dizziness and whether their dizziness will resolve with treatment. These neutral attitudes are experienced by a plurality of patients and do not differ by demographic information, dizziness handicap, quality of life, depression, or anxiety.