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

Background The DizzyQuest, an app-based vestibular diary, provides the opportunity to capture the number and nature of vertigo attacks in daily life. To accomplish this, the DizzyQuest provides different strategies: event sampling using an attack questionnaire, and time sampling using an evening questionnaire. Objective of this study was to investigate whether the number and nature of reported vertigo attacks was comparable between the two questionnaires.

Methods Fifty-seven patients, who reported vertigo attacks, used the DizzyQuest for on average 24 days. The number and nature (including symptoms, triggers and duration) of vertigo attacks were compared between the attack and the evening questionnaire.

Results The attack questionnaire was used 192 times. In contrast, at least 749 new vertigo attacks were reported in 446 evening questionnaires. A vertigo attack was not always reported in both questionnaires during the same day. Vertigo attacks that were most likely captured by both questionnaires were not always reported the same in both questionnaires regarding triggers and duration.

Conclusion Event sampling using an attack questionnaire has low recall bias and, therefore, reliably captures the nature of the attack, but induces a risk of under-sampling. Time sampling using an evening questionnaire suffers from recall bias, but seems more likely to capture less discrete vertigo attacks and it facilitates registration of the absence of vertigo attacks. Depending on the clinical or research question, the right strategy should be applied and participants should be clearly instructed about the definition of a vertigo attack.