oa Gender-related differences in the etiologies and outcome of patients hospitalized with dizziness: From a 20-year registry in Qatar

Objectives: Dizziness is a relatively common medical complaint that that rarely requires hospitalization for work-up and management. Whether gender related differences exist in the etiologies and outcome of patients hospitalized with dizziness is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare women and men presenting with dizziness in a real-world population. Methods: Retrospective analysis of all patients hospitalized with dizziness in Qatar to the cardiology service from 1991 through 2010 was made. Patients were divided into two groups according to gender. Clinical characteristics, management and outcomes were analyzed. Results: During the 20-years period, 1578 patients were hospitalized with dizziness; 404 women (25.7%) and 1173 men (74.3%). Women had significantly more prevalence of hypertension (46.9% vs. 31.1%, P=0.001) and diabetes mellitus (39.8% vs. 31.1% P=0.001) compared to men. Cardiac arrhythmia was the most common underlying diagnosis and was significantly more common in women than men (40% vs. 28.4%; P= 0.001), whereas acute coronary syndromes were significantly less common in women (13.6 vs. 25.9%; P= 0.001). The in-hospital mortality rate was significantly higher in women with dizziness compared to men (5.7% vs. 3.2%; P=0.02) [table]. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that women hospitalized with dizziness have worse in-hospital outcome and different underlying etiologies compared to men. Further prospective research is warranted to confirm our observations in other registries.