Benign paroxysmal position vertigo (BPPV) is one of the many conditions for which physiotherapy can be a great help to patients. However, BPPV can be challenging to diagnose, with misdiagnosis rates estimated to be around 74-81% in clinical settings due to the mix-up of conditions such BPPV and vestibular neuritis (Kerber & Newman-Toker, 2022). Luckily, Yan, Wu, Wang, & Yang (2022), the authors of this month's Physio Finds, have created a comprehensive but quick five-question questionnaire that can be used to screen patients for BPPV. Their article investigates the value of this questionnaire as a screening tool. After using the questionnaire for 520 adults with vertigo, they found that:
“The responses to the questionnaire revealed preferable reproducibility (r = 0.898, P < 0.05) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.702) as well as the validity (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin, KMO = 0.731) ... The sensitivity of the screening tool was 92.8% and specificity was 88.5%, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.946 (95% confidence interval 0.926-0.965; P < 0.05). The questionnaire proved to be of great value to screen for individuals with possible BPPV.”
- Taken from the abstract
You can find the article here - the questionnaire used for screening can be found in Figure 1 on p. 1921. This article is not available for free, so if you would like to see the full text, PABC members can send our Knowledge Services Manager an email request.
Physio Finds is a monthly News Update in collaboration with PABC’s Knowledge Services Manager Rachael Bradshaw.
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