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Background: Childhood obesity is one of the most serious global public health challenges of the 21 st century, affecting every country in the world. Mothers' beliefs and perceptions about their children's obesity and overweight are key to obesity prevention. Given the importance of this issue, the present study aimed to determine perceptions and beliefs of mothers' nutritional behaviors related to overweight preschool children., Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 mothers of preschool children with health records who were referred to child health assessment centers. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the health belief model. SPSS19 was used for data analysis. P < 0.05 was considered significant., Results: The participants (350) included 52% 25-36 years old, and 57.3% live in rural areas. There was a significant difference in the mean perceived susceptibility between mothers with obese children and normal-weight children ( P < 0.05). There was a significant positive relationship between severity and perceived benefits and a significant negative relationship with mothers' knowledge. There was also a significant negative relationship between self-efficacy and perceived barriers ( P > 0.05)., Conclusions: The results of this study showed that maternal health beliefs were effective in the formation of obesity prevention behaviors in children. In this regard, educational interventions can play an important role in the proper practice of such behaviors., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: The cancer is uncontrolled growth and spread of cells that affect almost all parts of the body. One of the most prevalent cancers in the female genital system is cervical cancer. The aim of present study was to determine the effect of educational intervention using the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) on cervical cancer screening behavior (Pap smear test) among women., Materials and Methods: In this interventional study that was done in Karaj health centers (2016), women (aged 15-49 years) were in the third stage of behavior change process based on PAPM randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The data collection tool was a PAPM-based questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed. Gathered data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS 16 and statistical tests ( t -test, repeated measures analysis of variance, and Wilcoxon, Chi-squared, Fisher's exact, and Mann-Whitney tests)., Results: The result showed that the stages of the decision-making process between the two groups were significantly different at the time immediately and 2 months after the intervention ( P > 0.001). Also the results of the intervention based on the health belief model health belief model (HBM) components, regarding variables of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and subjective norms, the mean scores in the experimental group were significantly different between the three sections before, immediately, and 2 months after the intervention ( P > 0.001)., Conclusions: This study provides hints how persons could be influenced to move from the "Deciding about action" positions into to the stages of decided to act, adoption, and maintenance for promoting cervical cancer screening behavior., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: Preterm birth (PTB) is one of the most important factors that increase the risk of chronic diseases and postpartum death in infants. The aim of this study was to determine the maternal factors that affect the birth of preterm infants in the city of Bandar Abbas., Materials and Methods: This is a case-control study that was performed on 400 preterm infants. Sampling was done by a simple method, and information was gathered by interviewing the mothers and their medical records. Data were collected by SPSS software version 16. To compare risk factors in the two groups, conditional logistic regression was used, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: Results showed that factors such as type of delivery (odds ratio [OR] = 3.584, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.981-6.485), preeclampsia (OR = 2.688, 95% CI: 1.164-6.207), history of PTB (OR = 4.171, 95% CI: 1.483-11.728), premature rupture of membranes (OR = 3.273, 95% CI: 1.745-6.137), care during prenatal (OR = 0.334, 95% CI: 0.159-0.701), placental abruption (OR = 3.209, 95% CI: 1.209-8.519), placenta previa (OR = 9.333, 95% CI: 2.086-41.770), and cervical insufficiency (OR = 11, 95% CI: 1.381-87.641) were independent risk factors of preterm infant birth., Conclusions: The PTB risk is higher for women with cervical insufficiency, history of placenta previa, and history of preterm. Early recognition and management of these high-risk conditions among pregnant women may lead to a reduction in PTB rates., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2021 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: Approximately one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption was wasted., Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of intervention on behavior of food consumption and waste production in the restaurants of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences., Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 233 students of public health school were selected as intervention group, and 233 students of medical school were selected as control group. The food wastage was weighed in both "Sabz" and "Medical" restaurants for a week. Based on training needs of the samples, teaching methods and programs were implemented in the intervention group for a month. The clients of both restaurants were followed 4 weeks after the intervention. The food waste was weighed after 4 weeks. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16 and statistical tests (Wilcoxon, Chi-squared, McNemar, and Mann-Whitney tests)., Results: The results obtained from Wilcoxon test showed that, the means of awareness, attitude, and behavior were significantly improved after the intervention in the intervention and control groups ( P < 0.001). After the intervention, according to the number of served foods, it was expected that the weight of food wastage to be 341.37 kg/week, but this figure was reduced to 224.98 kg/week after the intervention., Conclusions: This study has confirmed the effectiveness of implementation of interventions on enhancement of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of people about consumption of food and amount of wastage. The authors suggest that to investigate sustainability of effect of intervention on behavior of food consumption and wastage production, this study could be implemented in different and longer time intervals after the end of project., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: A proper measurement instrument is selected based on the suggested use of the instrument, the target concept of measurement, and features of measurement (e.g. internal consistency, reproducibility, content and construct validity, responsiveness, and interpretability). Concerning the design and features of measurement, there are not any adequately specific standards for instrumentation to measure oral health literacy (OHL). The present study proposes a protocol that attempts to fill this gap by introducing the psychometrics of a standard questionnaire which measures OHL., Materials and Methods: The present research employs a methodological design and is carried out in Tehran, with data collected through interviews that are held face to face. The data collection procedure involves a review of the related literature, cognitive interviews, fuzzy Delphi Method, and focal groups with participants with OHL work experience for item generation. The target participants of this research are the Iranian adult population and experts working professionally in different health domains. For qualitative data analysis, the content analysis strategy and in the instrument Psychometrics COSMIN checklist will use., Conclusions: Achievement of the present research will be used to evaluate the capability of the Iranian adult population in searching, processing, and deciding on healthcare services. This instrument will focus on evaluating both clinical and nonclinical settings. The present research can vastly improve our knowledge of the state of OHL in the Iranian adult population., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: Insufficient physical activity is a global health-care problem and is considered an independent risk factor for chronic diseases. The present research aimed to explore the effect of an educational intervention based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and stages of change on promoting women's physical activity., Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental research was conducted on 68 women who voluntarily visited the health-care centers of Mashhad. They were selected by randomized multistratified sampling method and were divided into two groups of intervention ( n = 34) and control ( n = 34). The data collection tools included a demographic information questionnaire, a questionnaire based on the TPB and stages of change, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The data were statistically analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (paired t -test, correlation coefficient, and covariance). The significance level of P < 0.05 was considered in this study., Results: No statistically significant difference was found between the intervention and control groups before the intervention in terms of the scores of the TPB constructs and physical activity ( P > 0.05). However, after the educational intervention, a significant difference was observed in the mean scores of TPB constructs and physical activity ( P < 0.05). In addition, no statistically significant difference was found in the stages of change between the two groups after the intervention., Conclusions: The results of this study pointed to the effectiveness of educational intervention and the necessity to use educational interventions to help adopt preventive behaviors. Therefore, the use of well-established educational models rather than conventional methods is recommended., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2019 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Background: Mortality and disability rates were reported to be respectively 2-3 and 5-10 times higher in C-sections compared to Vaginal delivery., Objectives: This study was aimed to explore the factors involved in selecting the birth type among primiparous women., Methods: The present cross-sectional research was conducted on 220 primiparous women, who visited the health-care centers of Bandar Abbas. They were recruited in their first trimester of pregnancy with a simple randomized clustering method. Data were collected in a researcher-designed questionnaire. Its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and reliability was tested and approved through the test-retest method. Mean, standard deviation, independent sample t -test, and Chi-squared tests for data analysis were done by SPSS 16. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: The mean age of the participants was 27.40 ± 6.07 years. The main barriers to the choice of vaginal delivery were the fear of pain and fear of vaginal area tears and ruptures, fear of injury to fetus, and doctor's recommendation. A statistically significant correlation was observed between the age, education, employment, income, awareness, and the reasons for preferring surgical childbirth., Conclusions: To reduce the rate of unnecessary cesarean sections (C-section), the following recommendations are suggested: Reducing fear of pain in expectant mothers, modifying wrong beliefs about the culture of natural childbirth, increasing awareness of fewer adverse effects of vaginal delivery including the vaginal tears if the mother abides by all midwife(s) instructions during the delivery procedure, providing educational courses for the necessary movements during the delivery, decreasing surgeons' payment for C-section, and increasing payment for natural childbirth and implementing barriers for optional delivery to reduce the C-section., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.