Evaluation of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo in American Football Players

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the association between posterior channel benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and trauma that is frequently experienced by American football players.

Participants were classified into the following two groups: (1) a study group consisting of 63 male participants aged 18-30 years who had been playing American football for more than 2 years and (2) a control group consisting of 49 male participants aged 18-27 years with no history of otologic/vestibular disease or acute/chronic trauma. Trauma, age, total duration of playing American football, and weekly training hours of subjects in the study group were analyzed to determine any relationship with BPPV occurrence. We performed otologic, audiologic, and vestibular assessments of pure sound audiometry, tympanometry, tandem walking test with eyes open and eyes closed, Romberg, head shaking, roll, and Dix-Hallpike tests to all participants.

A positive correlation between the total years of American football played and posterior channel BPPV frequency was observed in the study group. In addition, increasing weekly hours of training was shown to further increase the risk of BPPV. A total of 16 out of 63 athletes experienced BPPV, whereas none of the participants in the control group experienced BPPV. All participants completed the Vertigo Symptom Scale, which revealed that vertigo did not cause any significant negative impact on their training routine and activities of daily living.

Our results indicate that the weekly training hours and total years of training with American football increase posterior channel BPPV frequency.