Investigating of Mothers' Behavior Based on the Health Belief Model about Using Iron Supplementation in 6 to 24- Month Old Children in Shahrekord City, Iran

Abstract

Background: Anemiais one of the most important problems in children's public health. Iron Deficiency Anemia is the most common type of anemia among this group. This study was conducted to determine mothers' behavior based on Health Belief Model about using iron complementation in 6 to 24 month old children in Shahrekord city. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2013.Eighty three Mothers, with their children (6- 24 months) participated in the research and completed the questionnaire designed based on Health Belief Model. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed in a pilot study (a=0.79). The data were analyzed by software SPSS16, Spearman and Pearson correlation tests. Results: The mean age of mothers was 28.95±4.05 and most of them (44/6%) graduated from university. Awareness, sensitivity and perceived severity and also perceived benefits of most studied cases (59%) were evaluated acceptable. But the attitude of a considerable number of the cases (41%) towards removing the barriers (perceived barriers) was poor. A lot of studied cases (34/9%) had poor performance as well. There were significant relationships between awareness, education, number of children, and performance (p<0.001). There was also a significant inverse relationship between performance and perceived barriers. (p<0.001, r =- 0.49) Conclusions: The results showed mothers' poor attitude about removing the barriers which were existed against giving iron to their children. Since perceived barriers have a significant role in performance, it can be concluded that this is the cause of mothers' behavior. So, it is necessary to develop educational programs in this field.