Prevention of Self-medication in Women of Reproductive Age Based on a Health Belief Model: A Quasi-experimental Study

Background: Women of reproductive age have important responsibilities such as pregnancy, breastfeeding,and children raising. This study aimed at surveying the effect of educational interventions, based on thehealth belief model (HBM), in the prevention of self-medication (SM) in women of reproductive age.Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on women of reproductive age in Jahrom in ۲۰۱۹(January-September). Simple multi-stage random sampling was used to select the participants, and thesample size was determined ۶۰ people for both intervention and control groups. Data collection toolwas a questionnaire including demographic information and HBM construct questions. The questionnairewas completed in person by both groups before and three months after the educational intervention. Theeducational intervention was performed based on the HBM in the intervention group, including holding ۴educational sessions each lasting ۶۰ minutes. The data were analyzed by SPSS ۲۱ software using the chisquaretest, paired t test, and independent t-test.Results: The results showed a significant difference between intervention and control groups in terms ofknowledge, perceived severity, benefits, and barriers, as well as cues to action on the correct use of drugsafter the intervention (P < ۰.۰۵). Three months after the intervention, the practice mean of women in theintervention group was significantly decreased compared with the control group (P < ۰.۰۰۱).Conclusion: Overall, educational intervention based on HBM was effective in preventing SM, but theextent of this effect varied for different HBM constructs. Nonetheless, measuring the effectiveness of theintervention based on the HBM in preventing SM behaviors requires studies with a long follow-up period.

Keywords:

Education , Self-medication , Health , women , Health belief model