[ effect of educational program based on health belief model [HBM] on preventive behavior of self-medication in woman with pregnancy in Arak, Iran]

ABSTRACT

Self-medication is one of the most serious health problems inducing many problems for society and people. This occurs more in women, because this group may be in sensitive periods, for example pregnancy and milking, therefore, birth abnormal neonatal situations may cause many social and familial problems. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of educational program based on Health Belief Model [HBM] on preventive behavior of selfmedication in woman with pregnancy in Arak, Iran. In this quasi-experimental study two hundred women with pregnancy, and referring to health centers participated. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups the experimental and control groups [each group consisting 100 women]. Sampling was done with clustering based on mailing address in the city. Data collection was performed with a questionnaire based on HBM [perceived susceptibility, severity, barrier and benefit, and cues to action and performance checklist about selfmedication was used in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational program. Before intervention, data collection for both groups was conducted upon a questionnaire and checklist. Then, intervention was done in 1 month consisting of 4 sessions, each 50 minutes post intervention. 1 and 2 months after intervention, two follow up sessions were held, and 3 months after, data were recollected and analyzed. The average age of case and control groups were 29.2 +/- 4.7 and 27.1 +/- 3.8 years, respectively, and mean time of pregnancy was 7.2. +/- 4.6 weeks. The results indicated that the mean scores of knowledge, perceived susceptibility and performance about selfmedication was lower than average, while severity? barrier and benefit about self medication were in higher than average. The mean score of all HBM elements of experimental group changed significantly after the intervention and in comparison to the control group, and performance of women about selfmedication reduced [p<0/05]. The more the knowledge, perceived susceptibility, severity and benefit are higher, the less will be the women performance about self medication. Findings of this research confirmed the effect on health education based on HBM [compared with educational traditional methods in control group health centers] on self medication in women with pregnancy. Therefore, proposed education based on this model is suggested to be performed in other health center for reducing this problem: