Methods
Ethical Considerations: The Research Operational Committee (ROC) at West Suffolk Hospital approved our project proposal for a randomised prospective study titled ‘Utility of A Dizziness Questionnaire in ENT Balance Assessments in Times of COVID-19’.
Participants: All 115 patients awaiting a first balance assessment were included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned to study and control groups. 57 patients received a questionnaire (questionnaire group (QG)) and 58 patients did not (non-questionnaire group (NQG). The QG patients received a letter in the post asking them to complete the questionnaire and return it using a pre-stamped and addressed envelope, and explaining that this implied consent to participate. If returned in time, the clinician conducting the telephone consultation would read the RDQ before the consultation. The NQG group did not receive anything by post.
All telephone consultations were timed, and at the end of each consultation the clinician completed a survey. Any QG patients who did not return a completed questionnaire were excluded from analysis. Any patients for which the clinician did not complete the survey were also excluded.
Analysis: The CONSORT reporting guideline was used in preparation of this manuscript. The results were analysed using Microsoft Excel. The response rate (returned completed questionnaires) in the QG was 70%, so the sample was considered representative. As the results constituted categorical data with a small sample size, Fisher’s exact test was used to assess for a statistical difference between the two groups. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.