Health Belief Model Scale Development for Disability and Abilities in Vestibular Migraine Patients

Vestibular migraine (VM) is a neurological condition characterized by recurrent episodes of vertigo, dizziness, imbalance, and migraine-related symptoms. These symptoms may affect daily functioning, participation in social activities, and quality of life. Because vestibular migraine is a chronic and recurrent condition, individuals' health behaviors and coping strategies are considered important in disease management. These behaviors may be influenced by patients' health beliefs.

Health beliefs are commonly conceptualized using the Health Belief Model (HBM), which includes six major constructs: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. These constructs are used to explain how individuals perceive health risks and how they adopt or maintain health-related behaviors.

The aim of this study is to develop a new measurement scale based on the Health Belief Model for patients with vestibular migraine in the field of Audiology and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale. During the scale development process, content validity will be assessed through expert review. A multidisciplinary expert panel consisting of audiology specialists, a psychiatrist, a neurologist, and linguistics specialists will evaluate the item pool in terms of relevance, clarity, and representativeness of the Health Belief Model constructs. Based on expert feedback, the items will be revised and finalized.

The revised scale will be administered to patients diagnosed with vestibular migraine. Psychometric analyses will be conducted to evaluate the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the scale. These analyses will include content validity assessment, factor analysis, and internal consistency evaluation.

Following the scale development phase, an interventional component will be conducted to evaluate the applicability of the developed scale. Patients diagnosed with vestibular migraine will complete the scale at baseline. Subsequently, a single-session educational intervention focusing on vestibular migraine awareness and management will be provided. The intervention will aim to improve patients' health belief levels by addressing the six sub-dimensions of the Health Belief Model: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy.

After the intervention session, the scale will be administered again to assess changes in participants' health belief levels over time. In addition, the relationship between the developed vestibular migraine health belief scale and quality of life will be evaluated using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF).

Participant flow and study procedures will be reported according to the CONSORT 2010 flow diagram. Statistical analyses will be conducted using SmartPLS 3 and SPSS version 25.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients diagnosed with vestibular migraine
• Currently undergoing active treatment for vestibular migraine
• Literate and able to complete questionnaires
• Willing to participate and able to cooperate with study procedures

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of hearing loss
• History of systemic diseases unrelated to vestibular migraine
• Presence of otologic or neurological pathologies
• Inability to complete follow-up procedures
• Lack of cooperation with study procedures
• Presence of balance disorders other than vestibular migraine
• Presence of vertigo caused by conditions other than vestibular migraine