Abstract
Objective: The current research aims to identify the effect of Vestibular rehabilitation exercises
on the dizziness-handicap among patients with vertigo.
Methods: The research design adopted is a pretest-posttest design. 30 patients with vertigo
attending the ENT out Patient Department (OPD) who fulfilled the inclusion criteria
were selected randomly by lottery method, 15 were assigned to the study and 15 to
the control group respectively. Vestibular rehabilitation exercises which include
eye, head, sitting, standing & st walking exercises were demonstrated to the study
group patients on 1st consultation using a booklet for 20 minutes along with return demonstration. The
patients were reinforced to perform the exercises twice daily for 7th days following which the posttest was carried out on the th 7 day. The control group
received routine care.
Results: The results showed that in the study group 86.7% had severe level of dizzinesshandicap
during the pretest which was reduced after practicing vestibular rehabilitation to
13.3% during the posttest, whereas in the control group it was 66.7% and 73.3% who
had severe level of dizziness-handicap during the pretest and the posttest respectively.
The mean for dizziness handicap for the study group at pretest was 66.3±14.03 and
at posttest it was 31.07 ±18.94. The control group showed that at pretest the mean
was 61.33±15.24 and at posttest it was 63.87±22.35. This was found to be significant
at p=0.0005.
Conclusion: The study supported the hypothesis that vestibular rehabilitation exercises had an
impact on the dizziness handicap.
Keywords
rehabilitation - dizziness-handicap - vertigo
