The effect of health education according to the theory of planned behavior on malaria preventive behavior in rural men of Chabahar

A total of 6000 people are infected with Malaria in Iran annually. Sistan& Baluchistan province is ranked in the first place in the country. A before-after intervention was conducted in 2011 in Chabahar city, Iran. Eleven questions were used to assess cognitive skills, 8 questions were to assess attitude skills and 6 questions were used for measuring behavioral skills. Three hundred participants were enrolled from three districts of Chabahar regional area. Chi-Square, independent & paired T-test and one-way ANOVA were performed for data analysis using SPSS software. The cognitive skills were increased significantly from 6.04 to 8.8 after intervention. The attitude skills were increased significantly from 15.8 to 18.2 following intervention. Among the behavioral skills, all of them (Using anti-mosquito net at nights, referring to the health facilities once the fever occurred, receiving all the medications if infected, sleeping under anti-mosquito net when infected, trying to dry the waste water and attending the malaria-related training courses) improved after the intervention. Perceived behavioral control was increased from 10.4 to 12.1 significantly. Subjective norms were enhanced significantly from 10.4 to 12.4. Mean behavioral intense was increased significantly from 10.4 to 12.1.The findings demonstrated that implementing educational intervention programs can increase the level of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of community regarding malaria preventive initiatives.