[The 'dizziness handicap inventory': initial psychometric evaluation of the German version].

BACKGROUND

Dizziness has a clear impact on quality of life of patients. Standardized instruments such as the "Dizziness Handicap Inventory" (DHI) help clinicians assess this impact systematically. The purpose of this study was to analyse the psychometric quality of a German version of the DHI.

METHODS

One hundred and five patients with dizziness as their primary complaint have completed the DHI and undergone vestibular examination. The structure of the DHI was determined with a factor analysis, a principal component analysis with a Varimax rotation. To evaluate the reliability, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was estimated.

RESULTS

A three-factor solution was extracted. The factors obtained from the German version of the DHI related to (1) activity and participation limitations (2) emotional problems and (3) motion sensitivity in everyday life of patients. Overall, there was a close correspondence of the factors of the German and the original version. The correlation analysis indicated a close relationship between the DHI-scores and the frequency of dizziness attacks.

CONCLUSION

The German version of the DHI exhibited a multidimensional structure and good psychometric quality to assess the impact of dizziness in every day life.