The impact of education intervention on the Health Belief Model constructs regarding anxiety of nulliparous pregnant women

BACKGROUND: According to investigations, pregnant women hypothesized that anxiety is a common factor that will improve spontaneously; they are not aware of its side effects on the fetus, baby, and pregnancy outcome, as a whole. Other studies have also not tried to design a theoretical framework based on Health Education Models (HBMs) to overcome this problem. The current study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of education on the anxiety of nulliparous women based on a HBM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An experimental study on 88 eligible nulliparous women (n = 44 per group), from Doroud city, was performed in 2012. The data was collected using a researcher made questionnaire. Education was conducted in three sessions tailored with HBM constructs with the help of lectures, group discussions, inquiries, Power Point presentations, and booklets. Evaluation performed using a posttest four and eight weeks after last session. The collected data were analyzed using statistical tests, including Chi-square, independent t-test, and repeated measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) by the significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The mean score of knowledge, perceived sensitivity, perceived severity, perceived benefits and barriers, cues to action, self efficacy, and behavior, four weeks after intervention (P < 0.001) and eight weeks after intervention (P < 0.001) were significantly more in the case group Than the control group. ANOVA with repeated measures showed a significant increase in the case group in knowledge (from 32.1 to 89.1), perceived sensitivity (from 34.8 to 91.5), perceived severity (from 31.82 to 88.48), perceived benefits (from 39.28 to 92.41), perceived barriers (from 26.93 to 88.61), cues to action (from24.65 to 92.03), self efficacy (from 29.71 to 88.75), and behavior (from 28.83 to 94.63). Changes were not significant in the control group. CONCLUSION: The effect of HBM and education on increasing knowledge and changing people's beliefs and behavior, in terms of anxiety based pregnancy, should make health planners and authorities pay more attention to these issues. Moreover, it will help in the betterment of the health of mothers and babies.