The Impact of the Education Based on Health Belief Model on Preventive Behaviors of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever among rural women from the City of Sarbishe
Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic virus fever is an acute febrile haemorrhagic disease mainly transmitted from animals to men by tick bites. There is the risk of disease transmission in humans during the slaughter of infected animals or a short period after that, following the contact with the skin or carcasses of the animal. Since rural women are the first group who are at risk of developing the disease, this study tried to determine the effect of education based on Health Belief Model on preventive behaviors against Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in rural women. Methods: This randomized controlled field trial was carried out on 138 rural women who were divided randomly into intervention and control groups. The intervention group members participated in an educational program designed based on Health Belief Model which contained five training sessions in the form of lecture together with group and panel discussion. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 8 parts including demographic characteristics and health belief model constructs, which was completed by the researcher before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software, version 19. Independent t-test, analysis of repeated variance, and post hoc Bonferroni test were used to compare the mean score of knowledge and model constructs and to compare the mean changes in the two groups before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. Results: Before the intervention, the mean score of knowledge and health belief model constructs had a significant difference between intervention and control groups in the constructs of knowledge (p=0.005), guide to action (p=0.001), and behavior (P<0.001), but there was no significant difference in other constructs. In the intervention group, a significant difference in mean scores of different constructs was observed before, immediately after, and three months after intervention, while in the control group, no significant difference was observed in most of the aspects of the model. Conclusions: Considering the positive influence of the education which is based on this model on the behaviors associated with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, it is suggested that this theory be used in preventive education programs against Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever.