Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran (MJIRI)

  Background: Cardiovascular diseases refer to a group of diseases that affect the cardiovascular system principally cardiac diseases, vascular diseases of the brain and kidney and peripheral arterial diseases which are caused by various factors. Considering the importance of nutrition education, especially the intake of fruits and vegetables, this study was performed to determine the effect of health education, Based on the Health Belief Model, on the improvement of intake of fruits and vegetables aiming at preventing cardiovascular diseases among high school girls in the city of Shahr-e-Kord, Iran.

  Methods : This was a quasi-experimental intervention study, in which 120 female students of high schools in Isfahan were selected through convenient sampling and were divided into two groups of experimental (60) and control (60).The instruments for data collection were the Health Belief Model and FFQ questionnaires. The HBM questionnaire was completed three times (before, immediately and two months after the intervention) and the FFQ questionnaire was completed two times (before and two months after the intervention) by the students. After the pre-test, six educational sessions were provided for the experimental group. Finally, data were collected and analyzed by SPSS 16(t-test, paired t-test and repeated measure ANOVA).

  Results : There were no differences between the two groups in terms of demographic variables. Before the intervention, there were not any significant differences between the scores of different structures of this model between the two groups (p>0.05) however, after the intervention, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in the levels of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived efficacy and performance (p<0.001).

  Conclusion : According to the results, the intervention had a positive impact on the improvement of intake of fruits and vegetables among the students.

Background: Breakfast is the most important daily meal, but neglected more than other meals by children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention, based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to increase breakfast consumption among school children in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Methods: In this quasi experimental study which was conducted in 2012, 88 students of four secondary schools in Bandar Abbas, south of Iran, were enrolled. Multi-stage cluster sampling was performed with random allocation of interventional and control groups. The study tool was a questionnaire which was filled by the students before and two months after the educational intervention. For data analysis, statistical tests including paired-samples t-test, independent samples t-test, Wilcoxon test, and Mann-Whitney test were used through SPSS v.18 software.

Results: The result of the study showed that application of TRA significantly increased scores of behavior of breakfast consumption (p<0.01). After the intervention, a significant increase was revealed in all nutrition intakes, except for fat and sugar (p<0.01).

Conclusion: The findings support application of the TRA in improving the intention and behavior of breakfast consumption. Applying this theory for designing interventions to increase breakfast eating is recommended.