Efficacy of Group Training Based on the Health Belief Model for Pap Smear Testing in Iranian Women

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer after breast cancer in the world in women worldwide. More than 270, 000 women die from cervical cancer every year, more than 85% of these deaths are in low and middle income countries, main cause of this problem is poor access to screening and treatment services (World Health Organization, 2013a). According to WHO’s projections, deaths from cervical cancer will rise to 320,000 in 2015 and to 435000 in 2030 (World Health Organization, 2007). Cervical cancer is cause of 18% of female deaths. Prevalence of cervical cancer in Iran is 6. 64%. Cervical cancer allocated 34.2% of all women cancer in Iran. The incidence of cervical cancer has been reported in different provinces of Iran to 7.1 % and in Hamadan, a western city of Iran is 0.9 % (Rakhshani et al., 2013). Iran has a population of more than 25 million women aged 15 years and older, who are at risk of cervical carcinoma. Cervical cancer with an age-standardized incidence rate of 2.2 per 100,000 women per year, ranks as the second most common malignancy of female reproductive system in Iran (Shafaghi et al., 2013). Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is a precancerous