In Japan there are few reports of vestibular rehabilitation for patients with dizziness being provided by physical therapists compared to other countries around the world. One of the most frequently used outcome measures for vestibular rehabilitation is the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) which is divided into 3 categories; physical, emotional and functional and consists of 25 questions. There are many reports that the total score of the DHI is used for evaluating outcomes, however, there are few reports about analyzing the individualized questions of the DHI. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of vestibular rehabilitation for patients with dizziness using the DHI, and to analyze the individualized questions of the DHI after vestibular rehabilitation.
Twenty-six patients who had suffered from dizziness for more than 3 months participated in this study. Postural stability and Japanese-DHI (J-DHI) were measured before and after 3 months of vestibular rehabilitation.
The results showed that there were significant differences in postural stability and total scores of the J-DHI before and after vestibular rehabilitation. Five of nine J-DHI questions pertaining to physical activity and quick head movements did not improve; however, the J-DHI total score did improve.
The results of this study indicate that vestibular rehabilitation may not be effective for physical activity and quick head movements. The exact amount of physical activity and quick head movements were not evaluated in this study and should be in future investigations.
