Quality Of Life in The Elderly With Dizziness Complaint: Nova Friburgo City - Brazil

Introduction: As life expectancy increased, complaints of dizziness became more common, leading to a decline in the quality of life of the elderly population. Objective: To verify the presence of a complaint of dizziness and the impact caused by it in the quality of life of the elderly in the municipality of Nova Friburgo / RJ. Methodology: Cross-sectional study. Elderly people aged 60 years or more were interviewed from the different districts of the municipality. An elaborated questionnaire was used, with closed questions about the type of dizziness, duration and time of the complaint, and the questionnaire on Brazilian DHI quality of life, composed of 25 objective questions that assess the physical, emotional and functional aspects. Results: 239 elderly people participated in the study, with a mean age of 69.9 years, of which 72.8% were female. 75.4% of the elderly had dizziness at least once in the last year. There was no statistically significant difference in age between the groups with and without dizziness (p = 0.17), nor when the groups were female (p = 0.41) and male (p = 0.33). Comparing the variables related to the DHI questionnaire in subjects complaining of dizziness, there was no statistically significant difference comparing the complaints related to the physical (p = 0.89), emotional (p = 0.78) and functional ( P = 0.38). Conclusion: Dizziness is a frequent complaint among the interviewees, representing almost half of them. From the questionnaire it was verified how dizziness affects the quality of life in all aspects.