Graphic representation of the burden of suffering in dizziness patients Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Background: Dizziness adversely affects an individual?s well-being. However, its impact is not only influenced by its physical manifestations, but also by its subjective importance to the patient. Appropriately assessing the subjective burden of dizziness is difficult. The Pictorial-Representation of Illnessand Self-Measure (PRISM), on which patients illustrate the distance between their ‘self? and their illness, has been documented to indicate the perception of suffering in several different illnesses. Our study objectives were (1) to assess how useful the PRISM is in patients with dizziness; and (2) to determine which clinical, emotional and sociodemographic factors contribute to their burden of suffering. Methods: A total of 177 outpatients with dizziness completed this cross-sectional study, in which the following measures were assessed: degree of suffering rated using the PRISM tool; dizziness-related variables, like emotional distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression-Scale, HADS); self-perceived severity of dizziness (Dizziness Handicap Inventory, DHI); and sociodemographic variables. Results: PRISM-rated intensity of suffering was correlated with dizziness severity, in that the more severe dizziness was rated by patients, the shorter the distance between ‘self? and dizziness (the higher the suffering; r?=??0.6, p?<?0.001). Regression analyses identified the strongest association between PRISM-rated suffering and DHI (p?<?0.001), explaining 34% of the variance in PRISM-rated suffering. The HADS score and having continuous dizziness versus transient attacks each explained roughly 2% of the variance in suffering. No significant associations with PRISM-rated suffering were found for sociodemographic variables or other dizziness characteristics. Conclusions: The PRISM is applicable to patients suffering from dizziness, demonstrating a significant association with the severity of dizziness and reliably distinguishing between those with low and high intensities of dizziness. The PRISM also reflects the multi-factorial aspects of suffering. Due to its immediate, timesaving and economical use, the PRISM could enable clinicians to identify vulnerable patients at risk for chronic symptoms and distress. Whether the PRISM can detect improvements and worsening of symptoms during treatment warrants further research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-014-0184-2 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-103875 Accepted Version Originally published at: Weidt, Steffi; Bruehl, Annette Beatrix; Moergeli, Hanspeter; Straumann, Dominik; Hegemann, Stefan; Büchi, Stefan; Rufer, Michael (2014). Graphic representation of the burden of suffering in dizziness patients. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 12:184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-014-0184-2 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes This Provisional PDF corresponds to the article as it appeared upon acceptance. Fully formatted PDF and full text (HTML) versions will be made available soon. Graphic representation of the burden of suffering in dizziness patients Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2014, 12:184 doi:10.1186/s12955-014-0184-2 Steffi Weidt ([email protected]) Annette Beatrix Bruehl ([email protected]) Hanspeter Moergeli ([email protected]) Dominik Straumann ([email protected]) Stefan Hegemann ([email protected]) Stefan Büchi ([email protected]) Michael Rufer ([email protected]) Sample ISSN 1477-7525 Article type Research Submission date 24 July 2014 Acceptance date 3 December 2014 Article URL http://www.hqlo.com/content/12/1/184 Like all articles in BMC journals, this peer-reviewed article can be downloaded, printed and distributed freely for any purposes (see copyright notice below). Articles in BMC journals are listed in PubMed and archived at PubMed Central. For information about publishing your research in BMC journals or any BioMed Central journal, go to http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/ © Weidt et al.; licensee BioMed Central This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Graphic representation of the burden of suffering in dizziness patients