Dose-response and recovery trajectories of fall prevention rehabilitation in older patients with vertigo: a retrospective cohort study based on vestibular and gait impairment phenotypes

Vertigo and dizziness are common in older adults and are associated with a significantly increased risk of falls. Fall prevention rehabilitation therapy (FPRT) is recommended, but current prescriptions remain largely empirical and do not account for heterogeneity in baseline vestibular and gait impairments....

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Rehabilitation dose and recovery speed differ by vestibular and gait phenotype in older fallers with vertigo; clinicians may benefit from phenotype-stratified protocols, but retrospective design limits practice change until prospective validation.

Identifying which subgroups of vestibular patients respond fastest—and need the most therapy—could allow audiologists and vestibular rehabilitation teams to personalize fall-prevention programs more efficiently.

1. 01Retrospective cohort design stratified patients by vestibular and gait impairment phenotype.
2. 02Dose-response relationships between therapy sessions and functional recovery were examined.
3. 03Recovery trajectories varied across phenotype subgroups, suggesting one-size-fits-all protocols may be suboptimal.
4. 04Focus population was older adults, a group at highest risk for fall-related injury.
5. 05Published in Frontiers in Neurology; retrospective design limits causal inference.

PMID

42676454

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2026.1874677.

Journal

Frontiers in Neurology

Publication type

research_article

Evidence level

2b

Population

Older patients with vertigo undergoing fall-prevention rehabilitation

Intervention

Fall-prevention vestibular rehabilitation (dose-response analysis)

Comparator

Comparison across vestibular and gait impairment phenotype subgroups