Prevalence of Ménière’s and the Importance of Socioeconomic Factors

Abstract

Objectives:

(1) Describe the prevalence of Ménière’s disease and migraine in the United States. (2) Recognize patient and environmental factors in Ménière’s disease.

Methods:

Discharge data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, the largest US all-payer inpatient care database, was analyzed for migraine or Ménière’s disease between 2008-2010 in patients >10 years old. Patient characteristics, including prevalence, age, sex, race, household income, and geographic location were studied to determine any correlation with disease prevalence. T test, chi-square, and linear regression testing were used to compare the differences between groups for continuous and categorical data.

Results:

Ménière’s prevalence was 73 per 100,000, females 84 per 100,000 compared with 56 per 100,000 among males (odds ratio [OR] = 1.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.48-1.54, P < .01). Among Ménière’s patients, migraine prevalence was 142 per 100,000 compared to 25 per 100,000 (relative risk [RR] = 5.7, 95% CI 4.7-6.9, P < .01) in those patients without Ménière’s. Ménière’s prevalence was highest in Caucasians, 91 per 100,000, and was significantly higher than other ethnic groups (P < .05). Ménière’s prevalence increased with age, with the highest prevalence found in 81-90 year age group. Midwest prevalence (94 per 100,000) was significantly higher than other regions (P < .001). Ménière’s disease is more common in less populated locations and the prevalence decreased as population increased. Ménière’s disease increased with household income. The highest prevalence was found amongst the 76th to 100th quartile with rates of 86 per 100,000 for Ménière’s disease.

Conclusions:

Environmental factors, race and ethnicity, sex, and age appear to be important factors in the prevalence of Ménière’s disease.