An exploration of significant others’ experience with ongoing vestibular disorders

Abstract

Objective: To understand the lived experiences of Significant Others (SOs) of people with ongoing vestibular symptoms.

Design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis.

Study sample: Ten SOs of people with ongoing vestibular symptoms were interviewed. Maximum variation sampling was used.

Results: Four predominant themes were identified from the data: (1) Journey The progression of learning to understand, cope and adapt with a family member’s vestibular condition is a unique journey; (2) Ownership Participants reported varying levels of ownership of their family member’s vestibular condition. Those who considered the vestibular condition as a joint problem were often more burdened by feelings of guilt and redundancy; (3) Intangibility Participants reported inconsistent advice from healthcare professionals, struggles with understanding, and challenges obtaining a shared understanding with their own support networks; (4) Disempowerment SOs were left feeling powerless due to not knowing what to do for a family member when they experienced vestibular symptoms, and not having a comprehensive understanding of the vestibular condition.

Conclusions: Ongoing vestibular symptoms have significant and diverse impacts on SOs. This study reveals a need for tailored support of SOs and supports the practice of family-centred care in this population.

Keywords:

• Significant other
• vestibular
• family-centred care
• vestibular symptoms
• qualitative
• undiagnosed

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the participants of this study who volunteered their time to contribute to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.