A Tool to Quantify the Functional Impact of Oscillopsia

Area of Science:

• Vestibular Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH) commonly causes oscillopsia, impacting daily life.
• Current oscillopsia assessments lack functional limitation data.
• The Oscillopsia Functional Impact scale (OFI) was developed to address this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the Oscillopsia Functional Impact scale (OFI).
• To assess the impact of oscillopsia on daily activities in individuals with BVH.
• To link functional mobility impairments to oscillopsia in vestibular loss.

Main Methods:

• 21 individuals with BVH and 48 healthy controls completed the OFI, oscillopsia visual analog scale (OS VAS), oscillopsia severity questionnaire (OSQ), and Activities-Specific Balance Confidence scale.
• Spearman correlation coefficients assessed face validity between the OFI and other measures.
• Cronbach's alpha determined internal validity; MANOVA and t-tests compared group differences.

Main Results:

• The OFI showed strong correlations with oscillopsia severity (OS VAS, r=0.69) and frequency (OSQ, r=0.84).
• OFI scores strongly correlated with balance confidence (r=-0.84).
• Individuals with BVH reported significantly greater oscillopsia and lower balance confidence than controls (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• The OFI accurately captures the functional impact of oscillopsia on mobility.
• The OFI, combined with severity/frequency measures, provides a comprehensive assessment of oscillopsia's daily impact.
• The OFI successfully differentiates individuals with BVH from healthy controls.