Department of Family Practice and Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
BMC Fam Pract. 2010 Jan 11;11:2. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-11-2.
Although dizziness in elderly patients is very common in family practice, most prevalence studies on dizziness are community-based and include a study population that is not representative of family practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and incidence of dizziness reported by elderly patients in family practice, to describe their final diagnoses as recorded by the family physician, and to compare the clinical characteristics of dizzy patients with those of non-dizzy patients.
Data were obtained from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice, a prospective registration study which took place over a 12-month period in 2001. We developed a search strategy consisting of 15 truncated search terms (based on Dutch synonyms for dizziness), and identified all patients aged 65 or older who visited their family physician because of dizziness (N = 3,990). We used the mid-time population as denominator to calculate the prevalence and incidence, and for group comparisons we used the Student's t and Chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis.
The one-year prevalence of dizziness in family practice in patients aged 65 or older was 8.3%, it was higher in women than in men, and it increased with age. In patients aged 85 or older the prevalence was similar for men and women. The incidence of dizziness was 47.1 per 1000 person-years. For 39% of the dizzy patients the family physicians did not specify a diagnosis, and recorded a symptom diagnosis as the final diagnosis. Living alone, lower level of education, pre-existing cerebrovascular disease, and pre-existing hypertension were independently associated with dizziness.
Dizziness in family practice patients increases with age. It is more common in women than in men, but this gender difference disappears in the very old. Because a large proportion of dizzy elderly patients in family practice remains undiagnosed, it would be worthwhile to carry out more diagnostic research on dizziness in a family practice setting.
尽管老年人在家庭实践中经常出现头晕，但大多数头晕患病率研究都是基于社区的，并且包括一个不具有代表性的家庭实践研究人群。本研究旨在调查家庭实践中报告的老年患者头晕的患病率和发病率，描述家庭医生记录的最终诊断，并比较头晕患者与非头晕患者的临床特征。
数据来自第二次荷兰全科医学调查，这是一项前瞻性注册研究，于 2001 年进行了为期 12 个月的研究。我们制定了一个包含 15 个截断搜索词的搜索策略（基于荷兰头晕的同义词），并确定了所有因头晕而就诊于家庭医生的 65 岁及以上患者（N=3990）。我们使用中期人口作为分母来计算患病率和发病率，并使用学生 t 检验和卡方检验以及逻辑回归分析进行组间比较。
65 岁及以上患者家庭实践中头晕的一年患病率为 8.3%，女性高于男性，且随年龄增长而增加。85 岁及以上患者中，男女患病率相似。头晕的发病率为 47.1/1000 人年。对于 39%的头晕患者，家庭医生未指定诊断，并将症状诊断记录为最终诊断。独居、受教育程度较低、既往脑血管疾病和既往高血压与头晕独立相关。
家庭实践中患者的头晕患病率随年龄增长而增加。女性比男性更常见，但这种性别差异在非常高龄患者中消失。由于家庭实践中很大一部分头晕的老年患者未得到明确诊断，因此在家庭实践环境中进行更多的头晕诊断研究是值得的。
