Development of the Persian Version of the Vertigo Symptom Scale: Validity and Reliability

Abstract

Background: Vertigo Symptom Scales (VSSs) are a proper instrument for assessing the patient status, clarifying the symptoms,and examining the relative impact of the vertigo and anxiety on reported handicap. Our aim is the translation and cross?culturaladaptation of the VSS into Persian language (VSS?P) and investigating its validity and reliability in patients with peripheral vestibulardisorders. Materials and Methods: VSS was translated into Persian. Cross?cultural adaptation was carried out on 101 patients withperipheral vestibular disorders and 34 participants with no history of vertigo. They completed the Persian versions of VSS, dizzinesshandicap inventory (DHI), and Beck anxiety inventory (BAI). Internal, discriminant, and convergent validities, internal consistency,and test?retest reliability were determined. Results: The VSS?P showed good face validity. Internal validity was confirmed and demonstrated the presence of two vertigo (VER) and autonomic?anxiety (AA) subscales. Significant difference between the medianscores for patient and healthy groups was reported in discriminate validity (P < 0.0001). Convergent validity revealed high correlationbetween both BAI and DHI with VSS?P. There was a high test?retest reliability; with intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89, 0.86,and 0.91 for AA, VER, and VSS?P, respectively. The internal consistency was good with Cronbach’s alpha 0.90 for VER subscale, 0.86for AA subscale, and 0.92 for the overall VSS?P. Conclusion: The Persian version of the VSS could be used clinically as a valid andreliable tool. Thus, it is a key instrument to focus on the symptoms associated with dizziness.

Key words: Anxiety, Persian, reliability, validity, vertigo, Vertigo Symptom Scale