Development and validation of dust exposure prevention questionnaire for cardiovascular patients based on the health belief model

BACKGROUND: Many cardiovascular patients suffer from respiratory failure. Environmental conditions can exacerbate symptomatology. It is necessary to prevent exposure to dust by taking educational steps to identify and modify patient behavior. This study aimed to develop and validate a dust exposure behavior questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model. METHODS: A mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to design and develop the desired tool. Qualitative methods were used to identify the preventive behaviors needed by cardiovascular patients at risk of dust exposure using the opinions of two expert panels and a literature review. The quantitative phase of the research was performed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the research tool. The research population comprised 417 people with cardiovascular disease referred to a heart hospital in Bushehr, Iran in 2018. Consenting participants entered the study through consecutive sampling. RESULTS: The final version of the questionnaire included 27 items across six domains, namely perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, perceived severity, perceived benefits, cues to action, and self-efficacy. The mean values of the content validity ratio and content validity index were 0.93 and 0.9, respectively. In addition, all items had a good correlation with the total score of their parent domain (P < 0.01). The model fit was initially unsuitable, according to the related indices. Hence, to achieve a better model fit, the model was improved by releasing some parameters based on the modifications suggested by the AMOS software. The modified model featured an acceptable fit (χ2/df = 2.2, P < 0.001). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients also confirmed appropriate reliability for all six domains. CONCLUSION: The Dust Exposure Prevention questionnaire has desirable psychometric properties and appropriate validity to determine the behavioral factors involved in harm from dust exposure among cardiovascular disease patients. This marks an effective step toward evaluating the factors effective in preventing complications related to dust exposure among such patients.