A factor analytic assessment of the English translation of the neuropsychological vertigo inventory (NVI)

PURPOSE: Vestibular impairments have been associated with a variety of cognitive deficits, most notably deficits in visuo-spatial memory. The Neuropsychological Vertigo Inventory (NVI) was developed to measure self-reported cognitive deficits in patients with dizziness and/or vertigo. The original French language version of the NVI includes 28 items and 7 subscales. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the statistical assessment of an English language version supported the presence of the same cognitive constructs as the French version of the NVI. METHOD: The English language adaptation of the NVI (referred to here as the NVIe) was administered to an unselected sample of 280 patients that were being evaluated for dizziness and/or vertigo in a tertiary care dizziness clinic. The individual item scores from the NVIe were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). RESULTS: The results of the data analysis supported a 22-item NVIe consisting of 4 constructs: affective state, temporal memory, spatial memory, visual spatial cognition. CONCLUSIONS: The NVIe is a new tool for screening cognitive constructs that may be affected by vestibular impairments. Prior to clinical implementation of the NVIe, additional studies of reliability and convergent validity are needed.