Assessment of the effect of education program on knowledge, attitude and

Introduction: Hepatitis are the most prevalent liver diseases. After tuberculosis and malaria, hepatitis is the most prevalent contagious disease in the world. Nearly 350 millions people in the world are chronic carriers of hepatitis B and 3% of our people in Iran are carriers of this virus (approximately 2, 500.000). Hepatitis B is the primary factor of chronic hepatitis, liver deficiency and liver cancer in Iran. The prevalence rate of hepatitis B in barbers compared with other groups is higher and the first general action towards preventing hepatitis B is health education to general population and especially to the groups at risk. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the effect of education on knowledge, attitude and preventive behaviors of barbers in Babol. Methods: We conducted an interventional study with quasi experiment in which 80 individuals of barbers in Babol were chosen by using random systematic method. The tool for gathering information was: a questionnaire filled out with interview and observation. The questionnaire has four parts: The first part deals with the individual characteristics, the second part deals with the questions based on knowledge and the third part deals with the questions based on attitude and the fourth deals with the preventive actions of hepatitis disease. The interview and observation were done in two stages before and after the health education program. Results: The finding showed that the rate of good knowledge before the education was 32.5% and it increased up to 93.8% after the education and the positive attitude (81% to 100%) and suitable health behaviors after the education showed an increase rate from 7.5% to 18.8%. As a whole, there was a significant (p<0.001) between the average of knowledge, attitude and health behaviors, before and after the education. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that education has an effective role on the promotion of knowledge, attitude and health behaviors of barbers regarding hepatitis B. Therefore it is advised that we should consider to have re-educational program and continuing education programs for barbers by our health workers in case of contagious disease especially hepatitis B