Age of onset of Ménière's disease in the Netherlands: data from a specialised dizziness clinic.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the age of onset of Ménière's disease in patients who visited a specialised dizziness clinic, and to verify whether the trend of a delayed onset age of Ménière's disease as reported for the Japanese population also occurs in the Netherlands.

METHOD

A retrospective data analysis was performed of patients diagnosed with 'definite' Ménière's disease who visited our clinic between January 2000 and December 2013.

RESULTS

Mean onset age of Ménière's disease among the 296 patients was 53.0 ± 14.1 years; 209 patients (71 per cent) were diagnosed between the fifth and seventh decades of life. No trend towards a later onset of Ménière's disease was found (regression beta co-efficient for year of presentation was 0.03; 95 per cent confidence interval = -0.34-0.61; p = 0.58).

CONCLUSION

Ménière's disease has a peak incidence between 40 and 69 years of age. No shift towards a later onset age of Ménière's disease was found.