Helping to prevent hepatitis B in family setting, by educating women to vaccinate before marriage

Abstract

ABSTRACTHepatitis B (HB) is one of the major public health problems and a major cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a model-based educational intervention on preventive health behavior of hepatitis B vaccination among women who were going to get married (pending marriage women). Seventy pending marriage women were selected from martial counseling centers. The participants’ knowledge, health beliefs model (HBM) constructs, and intention to receive HB vaccination were collected using a questionnaire based on HBM. The questionnaire was based on the Likert-type scale with the score range of 1 to 5. An educational intervention was carried out based on pretest results. The baseline and follow-up level of the variables was statistically significant within the case group. The mean score of the variables in the two groups showed a statistically significant difference in favor of the case group. Our study showed a positive effect of educational intervention on the participants’ knowledge, HBM constructs, and intention to receive HB vaccination, indicating that educational intervention based on HBM could be used as an appropriate tool to improve preventive behavior of HB vaccination.