Assessment of quality of life, functional capacity, and disability in patients with vestibular disorders: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The Vestibular Disorders Activities of Daily Living Scale (VADL) is a valid and reliable scale designed to assess the activity component in people with vestibular disorders. It is a self-evaluation scale and has been adapted into French, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic, and Persian. Objectives: In this study, we assessed the internal consistency, intrarater reliability, and concurrent validity of the Arabic version of the VADL scale (VADL-A) in patients with vestibular disorders. Methodology: A total of 50 patients with vestibular disorders completed the VADL-A, the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scales during a visit to their health-care provider. On the following day, they filled out the VADL-A scale again. The obtained data were used to assess the psychometric properties of the scale. Results: The internal consistency of the scale was excellent, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.977. The intrarater reliability was also compelling, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.94. The concurrent validity was obtained by comparing the VADL-A with the DHI and ABC scales and was found to be moderate, with r values of 0.52 (P = 0.003) and -0.65 (P < 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The results of our study proved the VADL-A to be a reliable and valid scale for assessing activity-related problems in patients with vestibular disorders.