The effect of educational program on mother’s child (6 to 9 month age) for reducing growth failure in Hamadan: applying Health Belief Model (HBM)

Introduction: Infants and children are valuable human resources for our future. Their desirable growth influences the quality of human resources for the future. Nutritional education is one of the most important ways to improve childrenʹs health. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of nutrition education program on reducing growth failure among children based on Health Belief Model (HBM) in two Hamadan Urban Health Centers (UHC). Methods and Materials: 100 mothers whose children were growth impaired randomly participated in this quasi- experimental study. Mothers form one UHC as experimental group (n=50) attended a 4 session educational program based on HBM components. The data were collected using valid questionnaire tool set and the check list of making child food aid, before, immediately and two month after the educational intervention among 2 groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 and descriptive – analyzes statistics methods, such as paired T-test, independent T test, ANOVA, repeated measure andx^2. Results: The average mean scores related to knowledge and HBM components variable showed significant differences among two groups of mothers immediately and 2 months after the educational intervention (P < 0.05).Mean performance scores of mothers in experimental group were significantly higher than those for control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings showed that the motherʹs nutrition educational program based on HBM, as the effective approach in healthcare requires new ways of teaching based on models and theories of behavior change.