The Impact of Direct and Indirect Education of Boy Students about Cigarette on the Constructs of the Health Belief Model and the Intention of Smoking.

Abstract

Abstract: Cigarette smoking is one of the major health threatening factors in the society, especially in adolescents. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the contributing factors as well as strategies to counter them, including training for proper behaviors. The purpose of the present study is to determine the effect of direct and indirect education of male students about smoking on the constructs of health belief model and intention to smoke. Methods and Materials: For the present quasi-experimental intervention study (direct education, indirect education and non-education) using pre-test and post-test on cluster random sampling method, a total number of 250 male students in ninth grade of Khoy public schools participated. Demographic questionnaires, health belief model and smoking intention were the data collection material. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean and standard deviation over the variables. Results: the results demonstrated that direct education was more effective on students' sensitivity in comparison to indirect way. The mean scores in all constructs of health belief model were not significantly different in the direct and indirect education group after the training compared to the pre-training program, except for the perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and practice guidelines. (P <0.05) Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, using direct education method to prevent high risk behaviors such as smoking among students is recommended.