Evolution of pediatric vertigo/dizziness during the past two decades

Background: Increasing life expectancy and declining birth rate are two key drivers of population aging globally, resulting in a falling population.

Objective: This study investigated the evolution of pediatric patients with vertigo/dizziness during the past two decades.

Methods: From 2001 to 2010, a total of 17,123 new patients with vertigo/dizziness visited our neurotological clinic. Of them, 472 (2.8%) were children (Group A). In contrast, 260 children (1.3%) out of 20,404 new patients with vertigo/dizziness were experienced during the period 2011-2020 (Group B). All patients underwent an inner ear test battery before diagnosis.

Results: The incidence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness in relation to overall neurotological cases significantly decreased from the first decade (2.8%) to the second decade (1.3%). Approximately 80% prevalence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness cases were referred to as vestibular migraine and benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood regardless of Group A or B. Correlation between annual birth rate (x) and incidence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness cases in relation to overall neurotological cases (y) represented as y = 6.488x - 0.037 via linear regression analysis.

Conclusion: The evolution of pediatric vertigo/dizziness revealed decreased incidence from 2.8% (2001-2010) to 1.3% (2011-2020), which may be related to the declined annual birth rate from 11.7‰ (2001) to 7.0‰ (2020).