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RehabMeasures Instrument

Disability Rating Scale / Disability Scale (Vestibular Disorders)

Last Updated

Purpose

A self-report scale in which the individual is asked to rate their level of disability based on descriptions of symptoms and limited activities.

Area of Assessment

Activities of Daily Living
Balance – Vestibular
Functional Mobility
General Health
Occupational Performance

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Vestibular Disorders

Key Descriptions

  • Six-point scale from 0 to 5:
    A) 0 indicates no disability
    B) 5 indicates long-term, severe disability
  • Patients asked to check one statement that best described how they felt about their symptoms.

Number of Items

6

Equipment Required

  • Score Sheet
  • Pen

Time to Administer

5 minutes

Required Training

Reading an Article/Manual

Age Ranges

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Initially reviewed by Jennifer Fay, PT, DPT, NCS and Tracy Rice, PT, MPH, NCS and the Vestibular EDGE task force of the Neurology section of the APTA

Body Part

Head

ICF Domain

Activity
Participation

Measurement Domain

Activities of Daily Living
General Health

Professional Association Recommendation

Recommendations for use of the instrument from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Multiple Sclerosis Taskforce (MSEDGE), Parkinson’s Taskforce (PD EDGE), Spinal Cord Injury Taskforce (PD EDGE), Stroke Taskforce (StrokEDGE), Traumatic Brain Injury Taskforce (TBI EDGE), and Vestibular Taskforce (Vestibular EDGE) are listed below. These recommendations were developed by a panel of research and clinical experts using a modified Delphi process.

For detailed information about how recommendations were made, please visit:  

Abbreviations:

 

HR

Highly Recommend

R

Recommend

LS / UR

Reasonable to use, but limited study in target group  / Unable to Recommend

NR

Not Recommended

 

Recommendations for use based on acuity level of the patient:

 

Acute

(CVA < 2 months post)

(SCI < 1 month post) 

(Vestibular < 6 weeks post)

Subacute

(CVA 2 to 6 months)

(SCI 3 to 6 months)

Chronic

(> 6 months)

(Vestibular > 6 weeks post)

Vestibular EDGE

LS

LS

LS

 

Recommendations based on level of care in which the assessment is taken:

 

Acute Care

Inpatient Rehabilitation

Skilled Nursing Facility

Outpatient

Rehabilitation

Home Health

TBI EDGE

LS

R

LS

R

LS

 

 

Recommendations for use based on ambulatory status after brain injury:

 

Completely Independent

Mildly dependant

Moderately Dependant

Severely Dependant

TBI EDGE

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

 

 

Recommendations based on vestibular diagnosis

 

Peripheral

Central

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)

Other

Vestibular EDGE

LS

LS

LS

LS

 

Recommendations for entry-level physical therapy education and use in research:

 

Students should learn to administer this tool? (Y/N)

Students should be exposed to tool? (Y/N)

Appropriate for use in intervention research studies? (Y/N)

Is additional research warranted for this tool (Y/N)

TBI EDGE

No

Yes

Yes

Not reported

Vestibular EDGE

No

yes

No

Yes

Considerations

There is limited evidence for reliability, validity, sensitivity/specificity for this measure. Although predictive validity not formally studied, the pre-therapy disability score can indicate prognosis for post-therapy disability score. Patients that had a pretherapy disability score of 5 showed the most resistance to change after therapy. Level of disability, as measured by the disability rating scale, decreases with vestibular rehabilitation (from 3.0 pretherapy to 1.4 posttherapy) and 80% of patients had a decrease in their disability score of at least 1 level with therapy.  (Shepard et al., 1990; Shephard et al., 1993).   

The mean pretherapy disability score as compared to the post-therapy score were significantly different at the p < 0.001 level (n = 94; Shepard et al., 1990)

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Vestibular Disorders

back to Populations

Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

(Hall and Herdman, 2006)

  • Calculated SEM = 0.82

Minimal Detectable Change (MDC)

(Hall and Herdman, 2006)

  • Calculated MDC = 2.27

Cut-Off Scores

(Shepard et al., 1990; 1993)

  • Scores of 5 correlated with poor outcome

Test/Retest Reliability

Vestibular Dysfunction:

(Hall and Herdman, 2006; =16, mean age = 51.8 years ± 13.4 years)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability for Disability score (ICC = 0.96)

Bibliography

Clendaniel, R. A. (2000). "Outcome measures for assessment of treatment of the dizzy and balance disorder patient." Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America 33(3): 519-533. 

Hall, C. D. and Herdman, S. J. (2006). "Reliability of clinical measures used to with peripheral vestibular disorders." Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy 30(2): 74-81. 

Shepard, N., Telian, S., et al. (1993). "Vestibular and balance rehabilitation therapy." The Annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology 102(3 Pt 1): 198-205.

Shepard, N. T., Telian, S. A., et al. (1990). "Habituation and balance retraining therapy: a retrospective review." Neurologic Clinics.