The DizzyQuest: to have or not to have… a vertigo attack?

Area of Science:

• Vestibular Science
• Digital Health
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• The DizzyQuest app facilitates capturing vertigo attack frequency and characteristics.
• It employs event sampling (attack questionnaire) and time sampling (evening questionnaire).
• Comparing these sampling methods is crucial for accurate vestibular event tracking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the number and nature of vertigo attacks reported via event versus time sampling in the DizzyQuest app.
• To evaluate the comparability of data collected through different app-based data capture strategies.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-seven patients with vertigo used the DizzyQuest app for an average of 24 days.
• Vertigo attack details (symptoms, triggers, duration) were compared between attack and evening questionnaires.
• Data from 192 attack questionnaires and 446 evening questionnaires were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Evening questionnaires captured significantly more vertigo attacks (749+) than attack questionnaires (192).
• Discordance was observed in reporting the same attack across both questionnaire types.
• Inconsistencies in reported triggers and duration were noted even when attacks were captured by both methods.

Conclusions:

• Event sampling offers low recall bias for attack nature but risks under-sampling.
• Time sampling has recall bias but captures more attacks and absence of symptoms.
• The choice of sampling strategy should align with specific research or clinical objectives, with clear attack definitions for participants.