en Nutrition Nutrition Original Research Original Research <p> <strong> Background: </strong>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. </p><p> <strong> Methods </strong>: 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). </p><p> <strong> Results </strong>: 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). </p><p> <strong> Conclusion </strong>: According to the results, the intervention had a positive impact on the improvement of intake of fruits and vegetables among the students. </p> Education, Health Belief Model, Heart Diseases, Intake of Fruits, Vegetables. 192 198 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-800&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Elahe Tavassoli Tavassoli.eb@gmail.com 200319475328460015186 200319475328460015186 No Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Science, Shahrekord, Iran. Mahnoush Reisi reisi_mr@yahoo.com 200319475328460015187 200319475328460015187 No Department of Public Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. Seyed Homamodin Javadzade homam_j@hotmail.com 200319475328460015188 200319475328460015188 No Department of Public Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. Zabihollah Gharlipour gharlipour@yahoo.com 200319475328460015189 200319475328460015189 No Department of Public Health, school of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran Hamid Reza Gilasi hrgilasi@yahoo.com 200319475328460015190 200319475328460015190 No Department of Public Health, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Science, Kashan, Iran. Asghar Ashrafi Hafez Ashrafi@sbmu.ac.ir 200319475328460015191 200319475328460015191 Yes Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.