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.