Audio Vestibular Assessment

Combined audiology and vestibular (balance) assessment capturing presenting symptoms, otoscopic and audiometric findings, tympanometry, vestibular screening tests, and the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) to classify hearing loss severity and quantify vestibular handicap.

Scoring

Instruments: Pure-tone audiometry (WHO hearing-loss grades) + Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI).

• WHO hearing loss: Normal (< 20 dB HL), Mild (20–34), Moderate (35–49), Moderately Severe (50–64), Severe (65–79), Profound (≥ 80).
• DHI: No handicap (0–16), Mild (18–36), Moderate (38–52), Severe (54+).

What it covers

Demographics; presenting symptoms; otoscopic examination; pure-tone audiometry (air and bone conduction); speech audiometry; tympanometry and acoustic reflexes; vestibular screening (Head Impulse Test, Dix-Hallpike, Romberg); the Dizziness Handicap Inventory; and clinical impression with referral.

Common pitfalls

• Assessing hearing and balance in isolation — the two systems share anatomy (the inner ear) and often co-present; a combined assessment exists specifically to avoid missing a vestibular cause behind a hearing complaint or vice versa.
• Skipping Dix-Hallpike when BPPV is a plausible cause of reported dizziness — a common, treatable cause of positional vertigo is easily missed without the specific provocative test.
• Treating DHI as a hearing measure — it quantifies the functional handicap from dizziness, not hearing loss; the two scores answer different questions and shouldn't be conflated.

Learn more

• FormExamples: audio-vestibular-assessment for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
• Audiology Assessment, Hearing Aid Assessment for related hearing assessments.