The Effect of Educational Program on Increasing Cervical Cancer Screening Behavior among Women in Hamadan, Iran: Applying Health Belief Model

Background: The systematic application of Pap test helps early diagnosis and effective treatment of cervical cancer. This study was conducted to assess the effect of education on health beliefs and practice of women eligible for Pap test using Health Belief Model (HBM). Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in Hamadan City, the west of Iran, in 2010 using before-after design. In this study, 70 women aged 16 to 54 years participated voluntarily who had never done Pap test until the date of the study. The volunteers were divided into several small groups. For each group, 2-hour training session was held twice. The data collection tool was a self-administered multi-choice questionnaire that was developed based on HBM constructs. Health beliefs and practice of the target group were evaluated pre-intervention and four months later. Results: Our findings indicated that education based on HBM was effective and could enhance the participants' knowledge significantly and improve the HBM constructs including perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers. The training program enhanced the practice from zero before intervention to 81.4% after that. The results of the present study revealed that increase in knowledge had effect on the HBM constructs. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between knowledge and both age and educational level. Conclusion: Health education based on HBM can enhance women's knowledge of cervical cancer, change their health beliefs and improve their behaviors regarding screening programs like Pap test.