The effect of education on dietary behaviors to prevent cancer in mothers

Numerous studies show that dietary behavior and the risk of various cancers (30 to 40%) are directly related, so changing dietary behavior could play an important role in preventing different cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the education of cancer preventing nutrition to the mothers of the students. In this quasi- experimental study, samples were 80 mothers of the students from two high schools of Tehran. They were divided into two groups with 40 persons in each group. They were selected by a multistage cluster sampling method. The data were collected in the control and intervention group by a self-administered questionnaire containing demographic and dietary behaviors parts (food frequency, purchasing, preparing and cooking, eating habits, health, and keeping behaviors) at base line (pre-test) and 3 months later. Educational content about dietary behaviors in order to prevent cancer has been presented by three sessions of lecture and question and answers in the intervention group, followed by the distribution of educational booklets and telephone follow up. The data were analyzed using SPSS-11.5. Based on the pretest results, the mean score of cancer preventing dietary behavior was low in both groups. Three months after educational intervention, the mean score of cancer preventing dietary behavior showed a statistically significant increase in the intervention group compared with the control group (P<0.001). The results showed that education of cancer preventing behavior could be effective in improving mothers' dietary behavior.