Travel Award Winner
Batoul Berri, AuD, is the 2025 winner of the VeDA Travel Award for her presentation at the American Balance Society (ABS) Annual Conference.
What is the VeDA Travel Award?
VeDA supports researchers who are working to improve care for vestibular patients by providing grants to cover travel expenses so they can present their original research about projects focused on vestibular patient outcomes at medical conferences.
More about Dr. Berri’s Research
Title: Understanding Health-Related Quality of Life for Patients with Dizziness
Abstract
Limited research exists exploring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in individuals with persistent dizziness. This study describes the initial phase of the development of a new patient-reported outcome measure designed to capture dizziness-related HRQOL.
Thirty participants were recruited from an academic medical hospital, including patients diagnosed with vestibular (n=10), neurological (n=10), or nonspecific dizziness (n=10). Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and qualitative analysis generated a conceptual model based on participant feedback.
Results revealed dizziness has diverse and debilitating effects on HRQOL, impacting physical, social, cognitive, and mental health. Physical complaints included mobility challenges (100%), vision issues (87%), nausea (80%), sleep disturbances (53%), and pain (47%). Social impacts included limitations in leisure activities (100%), strained relationships (77%), loss of independence (80%), and workplace difficulties (73%). Mental health challenges were also common, with anxiety (93%), depression (57%), negative self-esteem (43%), and anger (97%) being frequently reported. Despite these struggles, patients also exhibited resilience (67%) and positive health behaviors (70%).
These findings capture the multifaceted effects of dizziness on HRQOL, highlighting the need for a more specialized assessment tool. While existing measures capture relevant aspects of HRQOL for these patients, they fail to address the specific impacts that dizziness has across these broad domains. Thus, a valid, sensitive clinical tool could enhance clinical assessment, improve patient care, and guide interventions to better address the unique needs of this population.