Diseases and age of the patients were investigated in 6, 523 patients who had visited the neuro-otological clinic and the laboratory of equilibrium function in Kitasato University Hospital from August, 1971 to July, 1978. Regarding those over 60 years of age, these persons numbered 6.0 per cent among the population of Sagamihara city, where 36.5 per cent of the patients in Kitasato University Hospital live, however, those over 60 years seen in the neuro-otological clinic numbered 16.8 per cent.
Those with peripheral vestibular disorders, diseases of central nervous system, generalized diseases and others were 22.7%, 28.1%, 4.1%, and 45.1%, respectively.
The percentage of patients over 60 years of age was 42.2 in those with diseases of central origin. However, it was 15.0 in those with peripheral vestibular diseases.
An increase in the rate of diseases of central origin in those over 60 was attributed to an increase in the occurrence of cerebral vascular disease. Most patients with peripheral vestibular disease, such as Ménière's disease, sudden deafness, vestibular neuritis and positional vertigo of benign paroxysmal type were in the 3rd, 4th and 5th decades.