Significance of Balance Test in Assessing Emotional Aspect of Dizziness in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the major cause of neurobehavioral disorder. It often causes persistent and progressive symptoms, such as mental disorder, dizziness and balance problems. The relationship between subjective measurement of balance and the objective instrument of dizziness remains unclear.

Methods and findings: We enrolled 210 mTBI patients, including 94 patients with dizziness problems and 116 patients without dizziness problems. The participants completed the dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) and stability and sway indices through the Biodex stability System. A Box-Cox transformation for each index was performed to assess the linear regression relationship with all aspects (physical, emotional, and functional) of the DHI. After a propensity score adjustment, gender and age were significant predictors for all stability and sway indices. In addition, body height was a significant factor in balance test results when eyes were open. Furthermore, the emotional aspect of the DHI significantly correlated with stability and sway indices, except the mediolateral stability index (MLSI).

Conclusion: The three aspects of the subjective instrument of dizziness were significantly related with anxiety, depression and sleep problems. For mTBI patients, the objective changes in balance were associated with the emotional aspect of DHI.

Author(s):

Hon-Ping Ma, Po-Shen Chen, Ju-Chi Ou, Yung-Hsiao Chiang, Shin-Han Tsai, Wen-Ta Chiu, Kuo-Hsing Liao, Chung-Che Wu and Kai-Yun Chen

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