The Effect of A Health Belief Model ( HBM)- based Educational Program on the Nutritional Behavior of Menopausal Women in Isfahan

Introduction :Menopausal women are at risk of chronic diseases due to estrogen deficiency.One of the most effective ways for prevention and control of chronic diseases in menopausal women is changing their nutritional behavior. Methods :A randomized interventional study was conducted on154 menopausal women in Isfahan. In the intervention group , the training was based on HBM and certain behavior goals and continued for about two 120- minute sessions. Data were collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed before and after the educational program( two times- one immediately after it for assessing knowedge and HBM components ,and the other, two months after it to assess nutritional behavior change ) by menopausal women .The collected data were analyzed by SPSS. Results:The result of this study showed a significant increase in the mean scores of the knowledge (pretest=8.03 ± 1.24 to post test= 9/92 ± 0.25, P<0.001) and HBM components after intervention (P<0.001)and also those of nutritional behavior before receiving education and 2 months after it (pretest=28.91 ± 5.13 to post test= 43.51 ± 2.36 , P<0.001) significantly increased the in experimental group Conclusion:The findings of this study confirmed the effectiveness of the HBM – based educational program on improving the nutritional behavior in menopausal women.It is suggested that the HBM-based educational model used in this study be employed in medical health centers.