The Effect of Educational Intervention Based on Health Belief Model to Decrease and Prevent Mobile Phone Addiction among Female High School Students in Iran

Background Mobile phone has played an increasingly important role in people’s lives; however, there is a global concern that it may cause adverse effects on health. This study aimed to assess the effect of educational intervention based on Health Belief Model (HBM) to decrease and prevent mobile phone addiction among female high school students. Materials and Methods This quasi-experimental study was done on high school students in Esfahan city in 2018-2019. During a period of 6 months, 112 female high school students were selected and randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The educational intervention was implemented only in the intervention group (6 sessions of ninety minutes). Health Belief Model constructs were measured by self-report questionnaires and mobile phone addiction was measured by Persian version of mobile phone addiction scale before and two months after the intervention. Results: 112 students (56 in control group and 56 in intervention group) participated in the study. There was no statistically significant difference between the baseline characteristics of students in both groups as well as HBM constructs and mobile phone addiction. Two months after the intervention, the mean score of mobile phone addiction among the students of intervention group students was decreased and in control group students, the score of mobile phone addiction was increased (P ≤ 0.05).  Constructs of the HBM except perceived barriers for reducing mobile phone use and perceived benefits of mobile phone use significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (P <0.05). Conclusion According to the results, Educational intervention based on the HBM can prevent and decrease the mobile phone addiction in female students.