Knowledge and a Perceptions of Obesity Prevention and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables among High School Girl Student in Shahr-e-kord.

Background: Obesity is a major public health issue and the prevalence has increased in both the industrialized and developing world. Fruit and vegetable intake has been proposed to protec against Obesity. The purpose of this paper was to assess knowledge and perceptions of obesity prevention and consumption of fruits and vegetables among high school girl students in Shahr-ekord. Methods: This descriptive- cross-sectional survey was done on 308 high school girl students, aged 13-14 years, who were selected, based on a simple random selection method from eight schools. Data collected using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and researcher-made Questionnaire were based on Health Belief Model. Finally, data collected were analyzed by SPSS16. Results: The findings showed the mean score of knowledge was 39.14±20.40, perceived susceptibility: 31.65±16.40, perceived severity: 36.31±20.02, perceived benefit: 42.69±19.55 and perceived barriers was 40.50±18.59. There was a statistically significant and direct relationship between knowledge and perceived susceptibility and perceived benefit. The number of consumed units per day for fruits was 1.42 and the number of consumed serving per day for vegetables was 1.46. Also there was a statistically significant and indirect relationship between BMI of students with fruit and vegetables intake. Conclusions: The low level of appropriate practice of fruit and vegetable consumption by students in the study area needs to be improved by health workers and teachers via the mass media, health talks and one-on-one health education of students.

Investigating of Mothers' Behavior Based on the Health Belief Model about Using Iron Supplementation in 6 to 24- Month Old Children in Shahrekord City, Iran.

Background: Anemiais one of the most important problems in children's public health. Iron Deficiency Anemia is the most common type of anemia among this group. This study was conducted to determine mothers' behavior based on Health Belief Model about using iron complementation in 6 to 24 month old children in Shahrekord city. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2013.Eighty three Mothers, with their children (6- 24 months) participated in the research and completed the questionnaire designed based on Health Belief Model. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed in a pilot study (a=0.79). The data were analyzed by software SPSS16, Spearman and Pearson correlation tests. Results: The mean age of mothers was 28.95±4.05 and most of them (44/6%) graduated from university. Awareness, sensitivity and perceived severity and also perceived benefits of most studied cases (59%) were evaluated acceptable. But the attitude of a considerable number of the cases (41%) towards removing the barriers (perceived barriers) was poor. A lot of studied cases (34/9%) had poor performance as well. There were significant relationships between awareness, education, number of children, and performance (p<0.001). There was also a significant inverse relationship between performance and perceived barriers. (p<0.001, r =- 0.49) Conclusions: The results showed mothers' poor attitude about removing the barriers which were existed against giving iron to their children. Since perceived barriers have a significant role in performance, it can be concluded that this is the cause of mothers' behavior. So, it is necessary to develop educational programs in this field.