The effect of health education based on the health belief model on influenza preventive behaviors in family health delegates in Bakhrez city

Influenza is an acute respiratory disease with high infectivity. Therefore, educating health delegates as executive arms of health system can be effective in preventing spread of disease in society. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of health education with health belief model on influenza A (H1N1) prevention behaviors in health delegates of Bakhrez city.

This is a quasi-experimental study that was carried out on 104 Bakhrez health delegates who were available and randomly divided into intervention and control groups of 52. The instrument used was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the health belief model that was designed based on 5 Likert scale. The intervention group was trained in a 5 session workshop and finally data from both groups were collected and compared two months after the intervention with chi-square and ANCOVA test.

After training, the mean scores of health belief model constructs in the intervention group increased; so, that preventive behaviors before the intervention increased significantly from 10.73±2.07 to 13.86± 2.70 after the intervention (p<0.001).

The educational program based on the health belief model along with active follow-up on the adoption of H1N1 influenza prevention behaviors is effective in health ambassadors; so, it is recommended that programs based on the health belief model be used to teach influenza prevention behaviors.