There are mixed results in the literature regarding seasonal variation in the presentation of various peripheral vestibular disorders. In this large population study involving over 20,000 patients recruited from 116 ENT practices across Germany, the authors analysed the demographic characteristics and seasonal variations of three peripheral vestibular ICD-10 disorders: Meniere’s disease (MD), BPPV or vestibular neuritis (VN). Data was collected from 2012 to 2015. The age, gender and month of diagnosis were documented. MD, BPPV and VN were diagnosed in 3459, 11,153 and 6107 patients respectively. The prevalence of these diagnoses was 0.13%, 0.41%, and 0.23%, respectively. Females outnumbered males: 61.8%, 69.6% and 60.7% for MD, BPPV and VN respectively. When the patients were subdivided into young (<50 years old) and old (>50 years old), the total numbers were 1119 vs. 2340 patients (MD), 2680 vs. 8473 patients (BPPV), and 1860 vs. 4247 patients (VN), which resulted in an average of 0.3 vs. 0.6 patients (MD), 0.6 vs. 2.0 patients (BPPV), and 0.4 vs. 1.0 patients (VN) per practice per month.
No seasonal variations were found in all three diagnoses in the two patient groups. After comparing their results with previous studies, the authors concluded that their results were comparable and there were no seasonal variations for any of the three disorders.
The limitations of the study were addressed including the accuracy of the diagnoses.
