The Role of Health Beliefs in Preventive Behaviors of Individuals at High- Risk of Type2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is an important health problem that leads to severe complications, is the cause of early death, and is showing an increase in frequency. Development of positive health behaviors is extremely important for prevention of diabetes in at high- risk individuals. This study aims to identify the relationship between health beliefs and diabetes preventive behaviors in individuals at high-risk for developing type2 diabetes mellitus in Taft city. A study using the Health Belief Model (HBM) framework was undertaken with 114 subjects of both genders aged 30 years and above from three urban health centers who were diagnosed as at high risk for type2 diabetes during the screening program. Research tool was a 66-item questionnaire. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation and Mann–Whitney U-test.

Of the total, 29.8% of subjects were male and 70.2% were female. Regarding education, 68.4% of the subjects had not completed high school and 89.4% of them was married. Mean score of knowledge and preventive behaviors was 5.80 ±2.87 and5.41 ±2.83, respectively such that subjects scored 30.05% of maximum obtainable score of preventive behaviors. There were significant correlations between preventive behaviors and perceived susceptibility, r=0.243(P<0.009), perceived severity, r=0.312(P<0.001), perceived barrier, r=0.245 (P<0.006) and perceived self-efficacy, r=0.497 (P<0.001). Preventive behaviors among the subjects at high- risk for developing type 2 diabetes despite the presence of risk factors was poor due to lack of susceptibility, severity, barriers and self-efficacy perception.