title: Measuring outcome from Vestibular Rehabilitation, Part I: Qualitative development of a new self-report measure.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, UK. aem@isvr.soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Anna E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lutman
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yardley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004244:Dizziness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D016896:Treatment Outcome