Abstract

Background: Drug dependence among adolescents and youths is one of the biggest concerns in today’s societies. Drug addiction is a serious threat to society. This study was conducted to determine the effect of health education based on Health Belief Model (HBM) on preventive actions of synthetic drugs dependence among students. Methods: This quasi-experimental study used pre- and post-method and was conducted on 100 students of the second and third grade in Kerman who were selected randomly. The data collection tool was a questionnaire designed based on HBM, awareness and preventive actions of synthetic drug dependence. Before the educational intervention, the questionnaire was completed by both groups, and then the educational intervention was conducted for the intervention group in the form of 2 training sessions for one and a half hour. Later, 2 months after educational intervention, information was analyzed again for both groups. Results were analyzed through Paired t-test, Independent t-test, Chi-square and Pearson correlation. Results: Findings of the research showed that there is a significant difference between the average scores related to HBM structures (sensitivity, severity, perceived benefits and barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy) in intervention and control groups about the preventive behaviors of drug dependency before and after educational intervention. In addition, the intervention group had better performance in preventive behaviors than the control group 2 months after the end of the training program. In other words, the value of performance increased significantly from 14 to 16.84, 2 months after the educational intervention (P-value < 0.05). Furthermore, a direct and significant correlation was observed between the awareness, structures of the model (except for perceived barriers), and preventive behaviors (P-value < 0.001). Conclusion: Findings indicated that by increase of HBM components' average scores, the average score of synthetic drug dependence preventive actions increased too. Therefore, results of the research confirm the effect and efficiency of HBM in making preventive actions of drug dependence.

Authors and Affiliations