Abstract Background Increasing life expectancy and declining birth rate are two key drivers of population aging globally, resulting in a falling population. Objective This study investigated the evolution of pediatric… Click to show full abstract
Abstract Background Increasing life expectancy and declining birth rate are two key drivers of population aging globally, resulting in a falling population. Objective This study investigated the evolution of pediatric patients with vertigo/dizziness during the past two decades. Methods From 2001 to 2010, a total of 17,123 new patients with vertigo/dizziness visited our neurotological clinic. Of them, 472 (2.8%) were children (Group A). In contrast, 260 children (1.3%) out of 20,404 new patients with vertigo/dizziness were experienced during the period 2011–2020 (Group B). All patients underwent an inner ear test battery before diagnosis. Results The incidence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness in relation to overall neurotological cases significantly decreased from the first decade (2.8%) to the second decade (1.3%). Approximately 80% prevalence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness cases were referred to as vestibular migraine and benign paroxysmal vertigo of childhood regardless of Group A or B. Correlation between annual birth rate (x) and incidence of pediatric vertigo/dizziness cases in relation to overall neurotological cases (y) represented as y = 6.488x − 0.037 via linear regression analysis. Conclusion The evolution of pediatric vertigo/dizziness revealed decreased incidence from 2.8% (2001–2010) to 1.3% (2011–2020), which may be related to the declined annual birth rate from 11.7‰ (2001) to 7.0‰ (2020).
               
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