Retrospective analysis of the effectiveness of key Vertidisan®-DiGA exercises for the treatment of vestibulopathy - VH-16

Introduction: In addition to medication, the standard clinical treatment for vestibular vertigo primarily includes physical therapy in the form of regular exercises. Vertidisan is a digital health application (DiGA) for structured dizziness therapy. Its content is planned to be multimodal and to consist among others of Adaptive Balance and Eye Movements and Visual Stimulation (ABEV) exercises. Methods: A cohort study with 104 patients with intra-individual control was conducted to examine the clinical efficacy of solely 16 paper based ABEV exercises for the treatment of peripheral vestibulopathies which are also used in the DiGA Vertidisan. Using the short version vertigo symptom scale short form1 vertigo and related symptoms (VSS-sf1-VER) of the vertigo-specific and validated VSS rating scale (Vertigo Symptom Scale) as the primary outcome variable, the vertigo scores before therapy (time T0) were compared with the corresponding data at the end of a period of 12-16 weeks (time T1 ). Results: Complete datasets on T0 and T1 were available for N=104 patients. The mean VSS-sf1-V score decreased from 3.80 (median 4, SD 0.47) to 0.92 (median 1, SD 1.19) from T0 to T1 (weeks 12-16). The result is statistically significant (p=0.001) and shows a high clinical effect size. Conclusion: In summary, the analysis of the dizziness score shows a statistically and clinically significant reduction in dizziness through the use of the 16 ABEV exercises.