Health profiles for patients with Ménière's disease

The Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) has been used to investigate the health profiles for many medical conditions, such as herpes zoster infection, migraine, cancer and epilepsy. However, so far, it has not been used to investigate the health profile for patients suffering from Ménière's disease, but only for patients with dizziness, severe hearing loss and tinnitus. Each of these three symptoms have shown to have a significant impact on the quality of life. In the present study, 116 consecutive patients with Ménière's disease, diagnosed according to the AAO-HNS guidelines, visiting at the department of Audiology were included in the study. The NHP was used to measure the health related quality of life and includes the following subscales: "Sleep", "Energy", "Emotional reaction", "Pain", "Physical mobility", "Social isolation" and items concerning daily activity. The Tinnitus Severity Questionnaire (TSQ) was used to measure symptoms specific to tinnitus. The results showed that the perceived severity of tinnitus in patients with Ménière's disease had a significant negative influence on their health related quality of life. The patients with Ménière's disease suffered from more sleep disturbances and social isolation than patients referred to our clinic due to tinnitus. The quality of life was, on the whole, worse for patients of working age compared to retired pensioners. Emotional disturbances could explain 40.3 % of the variance of the tinnitus severity in patients with Ménière's disease. This can be compared with 20.6% in patients with tinnitus. This underscores the importance of providing psychological and psychiatric interventions and support to patients with Ménière's disease.