Effect of educational intervention based on health belief model on mothers monitoring growth of 6–12 months child with growth disorders

BACKGROUND: Maternal education is one of the main ways to improve children's nutritional behaviors and development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on Health Belief Model (HBM) on mothers monitoring growth of 6–12 months child with growth disorders in Ghirokarzin city, Fars Provonce, Iran. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on mothers of 6–12 months children with growth disorders of Ghirokarzin city, Fars province, Iran in 2021–2022. One hundred twenty mothers of 6–12 months child with growth disorders in Ghirokarzin city were selected using random sampling method and were divided into two groups of intervention (60) and control (60). The experimental group received training on the HBM constructs. Both groups completed the questionnaire before and three months after.intervention. A questionnaire beased on Health Belief Model constructs were used to collect information. The data was analyzed with SPSS 22 software using paired t-tests, Chi-square tests, and independent t-tests, with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: Three months after the educational intervention, the experimental group showed a significant increase in terms of knowledge, HBM constructs, weight of the children and feeding behavior. CONCLUSION: This study showed the educational intervention based on the HBM improved the knowledge and feeding behavior of mothers and improved Growth Disorders of child. Hence, this model can act as a framework for designing and implementing educational interventions for prevention of growth disorders in children.