Effectiveness of Community-based Intervention to Promote Iran's Food-based Dietary Guidelines

BACKGROUND Dietary Guidelines are considered as a useful tool for the promotion of healthy dietary behaviors. In Iran, despite the development of the latest National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines, in 2006, it has not been introduced at the community level yet. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program to promote Iran's Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (IFBDGs) in urban adult women. METHODS A sample of 435 healthy women, aged 26 to 54 years, was randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups. The intervention group was designed based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). Each subject in the intervention group received three sessions of group education on IFBDGs and the food guide pyramid and participated in a healthy cooking class. Dietary intake, cognitive outcomes related to the constructs of the HBM, physical activity, and the BMI were measured in both groups before, immediately, and one month after the intervention. The outcome measures were compared with the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), by adjusting for baseline values. RESULTS The intervention group had a significantly lower total daily energy intake than the control group after the intervention (P=.000). The adjusted differences in the changes of body mass index from the baseline were significant in both post intervention measurements in the intervention group compared to the controls. CONCLUSIONS The intervention designed based on the Health Belief Model was effective in improving the adherence to FBDGs and could serve as a basic model for the promotion of healthy nutrition behavior among women in the primary health care setting.