Estimated incidence and characteristics of vestibular neuritis in Japan: A nationwide survey

Objective: To assess the annual incidence of vestibular neuritis (VN) in the Japanese population. Methods: We conducted a mail-based survey targeting otolaryngologic clinics and hospitals across Japan to estimate the annual number of patients who were newly-diagnosed with VN during the one-year period of 2021. Using a stratified sampling method, we selected 1,107 departments and asked them to report the number of new patients with VN and their demographics. The total number of VN patients was estimated by multiplying the reported numbers by the reciprocal of the sampling rate and response rate. Results: The overall survey response rate was 40.5 % (448 departments). The estimated number of newly-diagnosed VN patients in 2021 was 8,861 (95 % confidential interval [CI], 2,290–15,432) The annual incidence of VN was 7.05 per 100,000 population in Japan. The male-to-female ratio of VN patients was 0.96, and the mean age was 60.3 ± 16.1 years (range 11–94 years). Conclusions: The annual incidence of VN in Japan in 2021 had almost doubled and the mean age had become older compared to the previous study in 1993 (annual incidence; 3.5 per 100,000 per year; mean age: 45 years).