Dietary Inflammation and Chronic Dizziness With Imbalance in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Nationally Representative Study.

BACKGROUND

Chronic dizziness and imbalance, which can significantly impact an individual's quality of life and even mortality, are prevalent conditions with multifactorial etiologies, including inflammation. We examined the association between dietary inflammatory potential and chronic dizziness with imbalance.

METHODS

This study included 7,562 Korean adults aged ≥ 40 years from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2019-2022. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) was calculated from 24-hour dietary recall, with higher scores indicating more pro-inflammatory diets. Chronic dizziness was categorized as isolated or accompanied by imbalance. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

RESULTS

Prevalence was 3.8% for isolated dizziness and 1.4% for dizziness with imbalance. Higher DII scores were associated with higher odds of chronic dizziness with imbalance (tertile 3 vs. tertile 1; OR, 2.89; 95% CI, 1.54-5.43; P trend = 0.016), but not with isolated dizziness. The association was stronger among participants without hearing loss (OR per 1-point increase, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.19-1.77; P interaction = 0.047) than in those with hearing loss.

CONCLUSION

A higher dietary inflammatory potential was associated with increased odds of chronic dizziness accompanied by imbalance, suggesting that dietary inflammation may be relevant to vestibular-related symptoms.