Investigating the effect of package theory-based training in the prevention of gastrointestinal cancers

Planning of educational programs to inform the people about the prevention of diseases such as cancers is necessary. This study was conducted to determine the effect of educational interference based on HBM on practices of women about gastric cancer. In this semi-experimental study, 88 women participated from Arak. The subject were randomly divided in two groups, experimental group and control group (each group includes 44 women). Inclusion criteria were absence of cancer, Iranian nationality, age over 18 years, living in the city. Data collected with a questionnaire based on HBM and performance checklist about colorectal cancer prevention was used in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational program. Intervention was done in 1 month consist of 3 session each session 45 minutes. Three months later data were recollected and analyzed. In this study, the mean age in case and control group was 38.3±9.6 and 36.3±11.1 years respectively, with no significant differences (p=0.381). Average scores of knowledge and practice in experimental was 72.8±13.06 and 30.81±6.2 respectively group before the intervention, which was 88.05±12.2 and 65.3±8.9 respectively after the intervention (p<0.05). Moreover before of intervention susceptibility, severity and percieved benefit about practice of mothers was moderate but after intervention the entire items between experimental and control groups was significantly different (p<0.05). Finding of this research confirms the effect of Health Belief Model on prevention from gastrointestinal cancer in women of Arak.