Specific and nonspecific diagnoses of dizziness and vertigo in primary care: A descriptive study

To study the prevalence and incidence of specific and nonspecific diagnoses of "dizziness" and "vertigo", and their relationships with the characteristics of the population.

Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Twenty primary care teams in Cataluña.

Patients aged 15 years or older.

All diagnostic records related to vertigo, classified as nonspecific diagnoses or specific diagnoses and sociodemographic data of the study population during 2019.

Among 545,938 patients, there were fewer specific diagnoses (1533/10.47%) than non-specific diagnoses (13,111/89.53%), with a higher mean age in diagnosed patients (specific 57.87±16.50; non-specific 57.53±18.74; undiagnosed 50.85±17.75) and a higher proportion of women (66.8% specific; 66.3% non-specific; 50.9% undiagnosed). The most prevalent specific diagnosis was Meniere's syndrome (0.16%), followed by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) (0.11%), but the cumulative annual incidence of BPPV was much higher (0.26% vs. 0.02%). A higher percentage of women than men had specific diagnoses: BPPV (prevalence 0.15% vs. 0.07%/cumulative incidence 0.34% vs. 0.18%), Meniere's syndrome (0.19% vs. 0.13%/0.02% vs. 0.01%) and non-specific diagnoses (2.43% vs. 1.28%/3.18% vs. 1.67%). The ratio of non-specific to specific diagnoses was approximately 9 in both sexes. The characteristics that modified this ratio were deprivation index, age and nationality.

There is a predominance of non-specific vertigo diagnoses, associated with sociodemographic factors. These findings highlight the need to improve the training and awareness of healthcare professionals.