Patient-Reported and Performance Outcomes Significantly Improved in Elderly Patients with Vestibular Impairment following Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Study

OBJECTIVE: To describe the results of a vestibular rehabilitation (VR) program in the timed up and go (TUG), gait speed (GS), and dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) scores for elderly vestibular patients in a developing country. METHODS: Descriptive study with retrospective data collected from the clinical records of vestibular patients. The following information was recorded: sex, age, type of vestibular disorder, DHI score, and performance in TUG and GS, before and after participation in a VR program taking place from January 1 to August 30, 2017. The VR program consisted of 10 twice weekly sessions in the clinic and daily exercises at the patient's home. We used Student's t-test for paired and Wilcoxon's test according to the data distribution. The level of significance was 5%. RESULTS: Data from 57 patients (49 females; 78 ± 5.8 years old) were used. There were statistically significant differences in TUG (12.52 versus 11.56), GS (0.81 versus 0.90 m/s), DHI total handicap (46 versus 24), physical (14 versus 8), emotional (14 versus 6), and functional (18 versus 12) domains. CONCLUSION: The functional outcome measures reported, including TUG, gait speed, and DHI, reflect statistically significant improvements in elderly patients after vestibular rehabilitation; the DHI improvements are clinically relevant.