Prevalence and distribution of musculoskeletal pain in patients with dizziness—A systematic review

Abstract

Background and purpose: Musculoskeletal disorders are among the leading causes of disability globally, but their role in patients with dizziness and imbalance is not well understood or explored. Such knowledge may be important as musculoskeletal pain and dizziness can mutually influence each other, leading to a complex condition requiring more comprehensive approaches to promote successful recovery. We conducted a systematic review to examine the extent and characteristic of reported musculoskeletal pain in patients with dizziness. Methods: A comprehensive literature search in Medline, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus, Amed, Google Scholar, SveMed+, and Web of Science was conducted in March 2021. Inclusion criteria were studies examining patients with a vestibular diagnosis, patients with cervicogenic dizziness and patients included based on having dizziness as a symptom; and reported musculoskeletal pain. Data regarding age, sex, sample size, diagnosis and musculoskeletal pain was extracted. The Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool was used for assessing methodical quality of the included studies.Results: Out of 1507 screened studies, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The total sample consisted of 1144 individuals with dizziness. The frequency of patients reporting pain ranged between 43% and 100% in the included studies. Pain intensity were scored between 5 and 7 on a 0-10 scale. Pain in the neck and shoulder girdle was most often reported, but musculoskeletal pain in other parts of the body was also evident. Discussion:In the included studies, musculoskeletal pain was highly prevalent in patients with dizziness, with pain intensity that may have a moderate to severe interference with daily functioning. Pain in the neck and shoulder is well documented, but there are few studies addressing musculoskeletal pain in additional parts of the body. More research is needed to understand the relations between dizziness and musculoskeletal pain. K E Y W O R D S dizziness, musculoskeletal pain, vertigoThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Musculoskeletal pain patterns and association between dizziness symptoms and pain in patients with long term dizziness – a cross-sectional study

“…The pattern of pain localization, where the neck, back, and shoulders are the most reported pain sites, is similar to what reported in other studies on patients with dizziness [17,34] and in the general population [26,32]. However, the frequency was markedly higher in our study.…”

“…The high prevalence of pain reported in our study is in line with other studies on patients with dizziness [10,17,18]. Despite that estimates of pain prevalence may vary between studies due to differences in methodology, definitions, and context, the prevalence in the current study was substantially higher than in the general population in Norway (94.5% versus 25%) [30,31].…”

“…However, neck pain is also found to be part of a widespread pain pattern in the general population [16], and this could probably apply to dizziness populations as well. A recent systematic review found that pain in other body parts is also evident in patients with dizziness [17], and dizziness is further found to be associated with local as well as widespread pain [18]. It is possible to speculate that both dizziness and pain could have a mutual preserving effect on each other as both symptoms could result in a more rigid movement pattern, leading to increased muscular tension and reduced recovery from dizziness [6,7].…”

Musculoskeletal pain patterns and association between dizziness symptoms and pain in patients with long term dizziness – a cross- sectional study

“…Association between pain intensity as the dependent variable, and dizziness symptoms, dizziness-related handicap, or dizziness catastrophizing thoughts as independent variables, examined with linear regression analysis.The high prevalence of pain reported in our study is in line with other studies on patients with dizziness(Gustavsen et al, 2021;Malmström et al, 2021;Moen et al, 2022). Despite that estimates of pain prevalence may vary between studies due to differences in methodology, de nitions, and context, the prevalence in the current study was substantially higher than in the general population in Norway (94.5% versus 25%) (Kinge, Knudsen, Skirbekk, & Vollset, 2015;Rustøen et al, 2004).…”

“…However, neck pain is also found to be part of a widespread pain pattern in the general population (Natvig, Ihlebaek, Grotle, Brage, & Bruusgaard, 2010), and this could probably apply to dizziness populations as well. A recent systematic review found that pain in other body parts is also evident in patients with dizziness (Moen et al, 2022), and dizziness is further found to be associated with local as well as widespread pain (Gustavsen et al, 2021). It is possible to speculate that both dizziness and pain could have a mutual preserving effect on each other as both symptoms could result in a more rigid movement pattern, leading to increased muscular tension and reduced recovery from dizziness (Coelho Júnior et al, 2010;Wilhelmsen & Kvåle, 2014).…”