Statistics How many people have vestibular disorders?

No definitive statistics exist about vertigo/dizziness/imbalance. In part, this is because symptoms are difficult to describe and differences exist in the qualifying criteria within and across studies.

• 37,800 requests per month are made for our Resource Lists of physicians, physical therapists, and audiologists who specialize in vestibular disorders.
• Information is most frequently requested from VEDA about the following diagnosis topics are labyrinthitis, Meniere's disease and endolymphatic hydrops, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), and ototoxicity.

• "Over 90 million Americans, age 17 and older, have experienced a dizziness or balance problem."¹
• "A majority of individuals over 70 years of age report problems of dizziness and imbalance, and balance-related falls account for more than one-half of the accidental deaths in the elderly. . . . Furthermore, in a sample of persons age 65-75, one-third reported that dizziness and imbalance degraded the quality of their lives."²
• Dizziness is a common symptom affecting about 30% of people over the age of 65.³
• U.S. doctors reported 5,417,000 patient visits in 1991 because of dizziness or vertigo.⁴
• "While the majority [of outpatient visits for balance problems in 1976] involved mild to moderate symptoms, disability was severe in an estimated 10 percent of the patients."⁵
• The exact number of people with Meniere's disease is difficult to measure accurately because no official reporting system exists. Numbers used by researchers differ from one report to the next and from one country to the next. The National Institutes of Health estimates that about 545,000 people in the U.S. have Meniere's disease and that 38,250 are diagnosed each year.⁶
• A study looking at one geographic area in Japan over a number of years estimated that 17 of every 100,000 people in the population would be diagnosed with Meniere's disease each year.⁷
• In Rochester, Minnesota from 1951 to 1980, out of every 100,000 people in the population 218.2 had Meniere's disease and 15.3 would be diagnosed with it each year.⁸
• The number of people who have Meniere's disease in one ear and who will ultimately develop the problem in both ears is not known. Estimates range from 17.7 percent to 75 percent. One study reported a 34 percent rate of bilateral disease over time.⁸
• Most experts regard BPPV as the most commonly diagnosed vestibular disorder. It accounts for at least 20 percent of diagnoses made by doctors specializing in dizziness and vestibular disorders. It is the most frequent cause of vertigo in the elderly. The number of people affected by this disorder each year has been estimated between 10 per 100,000 and 64 per 100,000 people, and some experts feel even more may be affected.^9,10
• "In the general population (all ages), 347,000 hospital days [per year in the U.S.] are incurred because of 'vertiginous syndromes,' 202,000 because of 'labyrinthitis' and 184,000 because of 'labyrinthitis unspecified,' with several thousands more accounted for by other balance disorders, e.g., Meniere's disease."¹¹

1. A Report of the Task Force on the National Strategic Research Plan, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, April 1989, p. 12.

2. A Report of the Task Force on the National Strategic Research Plan, National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, April 1989, p. 74.

3. Colledge N, Lewis S, et al. Magnetic resonance brain imaging in people with dizziness: a comparison with non-dizzy people. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. May 2002; 72(5):587-9.

4. Vital and Health Statistics, The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 1991 Summary, National Health Survey, Series 13, No. 116, DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 94-1777, May 1994, p. 21. See Table R.

5. A Report of the Task Force on the National Strategic Research Plan, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, April 1989, p. 74.

6. National Strategic Research Plan -- 1991, 1992, 1993, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, NIH Publication No. 95-3711, pp. 159-160.

7. Watanabe, Y., Mizukoshi, K., Shojaku, H., Watanabe, I., Hinoki, M., and Kitahara, M. "Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Meniere's Disease in Japan." Acta Otolaryngologica, Supplement, 519, 206-210, 1995.

8. Wladislavosky-Waserman, P., Facer, G.W., Mokri, B., and Kurland, L.T. "Meniere's Disease: a 30-Year Epidemiologic and Clinical Study in Rochester, Minn., 1951-1980." Laryngoscope, 94, 1098-1102, 1984.

9. Froehling, D.A., Silverstein, M.D., Mohr, D.N., Beatty, C.W., Offord, K.P., and Ballard, D.J. "Benign Positional Vertigo: Incidence and Prognosis in a Population-Based Study in Olmsted County, Minnesota." Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 66(6):596-601, 1991.

10. Mizukoshi, K., Watanabe, Y., Shojaku, H., Okubo J., and Watanabe I. "Epidemiological Studies on Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo in Japan." Acta Otolaryngologica, Supplement (Stockh), 447:67-72, 1988.

11. National Strategic Research Plan 1991, 1992, 1993, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, NIH Publication No. 95-3711, p. 159.