Validating the Orthostatic Health Questionnaire for use in Clinic
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validating the Orthostatic Health Questionnaire for use in the Falls and Syncope Clinic
IRAS ID
121465
Contact name
JL Newton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Orthostatic hypotension (OH) occurs when an individuals blood pressure drops upon standing up. It results in dizziness, blurred vision and fatigue. But it can also cause falls, blackouts and serious injuries. It occurs in 30% of community-dwelling older people.
Once diagnosed there are treatments available to reduce the drop in blood pressure, improve symptoms and reduce the frequency of falls. However, once treatment has been started there is no standardised method of assessing treatment response. In the clinic, patients are typically asked if their dizziness, falls or blackouts is improving since starting treatment. This approach may not identify improvements in non-specific symptoms (eg fatigue) or quality of life.
Recently, a group in America have produced a brief quality of life measure for people with OH. It quantifies a variety of symptoms, including the non-specific symptoms and physical functioning both of which may often be overlooked. It could be used in our clinic to enhance the way we monitor response to treatment.
In order for us to develop our patient follow-up we would like to know that this new measure [called the Orthostatic Health Questionnaire (OHQ)] works well in our clinic population; to be certain we would need to validate it. Through validation we would like to know that it is effective at measuring both symptoms of OH and quality of life. This can be done by asking patients to complete the new OHQ during clinic alongside two other reliable questionnaires. One which we use called the Orthostatic Grading Scale, which assesses severity of dizziness on standing and one called the EQ-5D-5L which focuses on quality of life.
If the OHQ proved to be valid in our clinic we would enhance and develop the way we assess response to treatment and identify individual patient quality of life issues.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1680
Date of REC Opinion
18 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion