Background:
Dizziness is known to affect the quality of life, irrespective of its underlying pathology. The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is a commonly used questionnaire to assess self-perceived handicap among individuals with dizziness. However, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), emphasises the assessment of activity limitations and participation restrictions. A recently developed questionnaire, the Vestibular Activities and Participation (VAP), is based on the ICF model and has been found to be a valid and reliable tool. The present study was undertaken to explore which items of DHI relate to vestibular activity limitations and participation restrictions by investigating the correlations between items of DHI and VAP.

Material and Methods:
This was a prospective study involving 56 individuals whose primary complaint was dizziness due to vestibular pathology. All had undergone detailed audio-vestibular tests prior to administration of a Marathi translation of the DHI and VAP questionnaires.

Results:
12 of the 25 questions on the DHI showed strong and moderate correlations with the total VAP score (r=0.48–0.68, p<0.05), while 8 questions showed significant but weak correlation (r=0.34–0.44, p<0.05), and 5 questions showed no correlation (r=0.27–0.29, p>0.05). The results indicate that less than half the 25 questions covering the physical, functional, or emotional domains of DHI reflect activity limitations or participation restriction in day-to-day life.

Conclusions:
The results indicate that responses to only some of the items of DHI are important when studying activity limitations and participation restrictions of people with dizziness. These particular items may be a better indicator of the effect of dizziness on the quality of life, and hence could be most relevant when reporting post-therapeutic improvement in quality of life.