DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i05.030

Pages: 1646-1648

Elderly population in India is growing due to increased life span and improved medical care. The morbidity in this age group is often associated with increased incidence of falls. It is often related to spells of dizziness and vestibular disorders. Peripheral vestibular disorders often are ignored at the time of evaluation of fall and only realized after the fall. Spells of dizziness affect the functional ability in „activities of daily living (ADL). One simple test to assess ADL is TUG test. A score of 11.1 seconds or more on TUG test was correlated with 80% chance of a fall in the elderly. Hence a study is undertaken to evaluate peripheral vestibular disorders in elderly along with their performance on TUG (Timed Up and Go) test. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) has been found to be most common vestibular disorder in the elderly. The most affecting disorder resulting in poor performance on TUG test was „vestibulopathy‟. One out of four elderly with Peripheral vestibular disorder has a risk of „fall‟.