Measuring outcome from Vestibular Rehabilitation, Part I: Qualitative development of a new self-report measure

Anna E. Morrisa*, Mark E. Lutmana & Lucy Yardleyba Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, UKb School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK† Correspondence: Anna E. Morris, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK aem@isvr.soton.ac.ukResearch 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.