Risk factors for vertigo: From health checkups in Yakumo town

Abstract

We investigated the risk factors for vertigo from the results of health checkups conducted in Yakumo town. The subjects of this investigation included 525 persons (299 women and 226 men), aged 40 to 88 years (average 63.78 years). Among these, 397 persons (75.6%) had no vertigo, 116 persons (22.1%) had vertigo sometimes, and 12 persons (2.3%) suffered from vertigo frequently. Ninety-four women (31.4%) and 34 men (15.0%) had vertigo. Twenty-one (51.2%) of the 41 women in their 40 s had vertigo. Logistic regression analysis revealed that subjective hearing loss, a low value of the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), headache, high level of serum creatinine and frequent urination were significantly associated with the risk of vertigo, after adjustments for age and sex. Listening difficulties in conversations between four or five people were reported more frequently than those in one-to-one conversations. Anemia should be considered in the differential diagnosis of vertigo. In the diagnosis of vertigo, information about the presence/absence of headache and the status of the headache, if any, may be necessary. In our study, migraine and headache on the ipsilateral side were associated with vertigo, but bilateral headache was not associated with vertigo. Our analysis, did not reveal smoking, drinking, exercise habit, sleep time, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, hemoglobin A1c, blood glucose, serum triglyceride, serum LDL cholesterol, or serum HDL cholesterol as being significantly associated with the risk of occurrence of vertigo, after adjustments for age and sex.