The effect of peer education based on health belief model on nutrition behaviors in primary school boys

    Dietary habits and patterns form in childhood and remain until the end of life. Children need nutrition education to obtain necessary skills to select the correct food. The research was performed the effects of peer education based on Health Belief Model on nutrition behaviors in primary school boys in Zahedan city in 2011-2012.In the quasi-experimental study, 217 male students at the fourth grade of elementary school were selected via simple multi-stage random sampling and divided into two intervention and control groups. A questionnaire in pre-testing was completed by two groups. Based on these results, need assessment was done and educational intervention was performed through questions and answers technique by trained peers on intervention group. The training meeting was 45 minutes. Post-test was conducted 2 months later. The collected data were inserted in SPSS software and analyzed by the statistical independent t-test, paired t-test, Pearson Correlation test, and regression analysis.The results showed thatbefore intervention, mean scores of knowledge, perceived benefits, barriers, susceptibility and severity, and self-efficacy were not significantly different between the two groups. After training, scores of all variables in intervention group significantly increased. Regression model, including behavior as the dependent variable and awareness, perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers, and self-efficacy as predictors, was significance. The results showed that the model-based nutrition education through peers has a positive impact on the nutrition behavior of students. Therefore, designing training programs based on the model can be effective on students' nutritional behavior with emphasis on perceived benefits.