Application of Freire's adult education model in modifying the psychological constructs of health belief model in self-medication behaviors of older adults: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Self-medication by older adults has been always a public health concern. The present study aimed to modify the psychological constructs of Health Belief Model (HBM) in relation to self-medication behaviors using Freire's Adult Education Model (FAEM) among older adults in Khorramabad, Iran, from 2017 to 2018. METHODS: The mean age of the older adults was 66.28 ± 7.18 years. This was a randomized controlled trial study conducted on 132 individuals older than 60 who were referred from different health care centers. The participants were selected using multistage sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control. The data collection instruments included a questionnaire which was designed based on both HBM and self-medication behaviors questionnaire. The phase of adult education model (AEM) was used to modify the psychological constructs of HBM and self-medication behaviors. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20 with a significant level of 0.05. Descriptive statistical tests, chi-squared test, paired t-test, independent t-test, and univariate modeling were employed for the purpose of analyzing data. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between groups in terms of self-medication. Unawareness of the effects of medicine were the most important reason for self-medication (p = 0.50). The two groups were not significantly different in terms of knowledge, HBM constructs, and self-medication behaviors (p > 0.05). However, they came up to be considerably different for the above variables after the intervention was implemented (p <  0.05). When the findings were adjusted for the effects of confounding variables, there were significant differences between the two groups in almost all constructs of HBM and their behaviors (p <  0.05). However, the perceived barrier modality of HBM did not reach to a significant level of difference between two groups. CONCLUSION: The educational intervention, which was based on Freire's AEM, had positive effects on the constructs of HBM and consequently on self-medication behaviors. The psychological constructs of HBM were affected at the phases of listening to problems. Self-medication was tempered at the action-reflection phase with shared creation and evaluation of the action plan geared toward the achievement of the behavioral objectives. The results might be of importance to healthcare professionals involved in care of older patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials IRCT2013091814512N2. Registered on January 2 - prospectively registered, the trial was registered in the Iranian Clinical Trials Registry http://www.irct.ir .

The effect of training interventions on the psychological factors of oral health in pregnant women.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Oral health is crucial for high-risk pregnant women in order to preserve their health and the health of their infants. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the impact of training programs on the behavior of pregnant mothers concerning oral health in Khorramabad, Iran. METHODS: This is an educational experimental study carried out in 2015 on 164 pregnant women referring to health centers in the city of Khorramabad who were randomly divided into two groups (each n=82). The instruments for data collection included a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model regarding oral health and two checklists of oral health indexes (OHIS and DMFT). Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 via paired-samples t-test, independent-samples t-test and Chi-square. RESULTS: The mean score of knowledge and performance, and the variables of the components of the Health Belief Model including the perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers and self-efficacy regarding the oral health care, significantly increased in the intervention group following the training intervention (p<0.001). However, the DMFT index did not show any changes after the intervention in the intervention and control groups (p=0.381). On the other hand, the OHIS index significantly decreased in the intervention group as compared with the pre-intervention scores (p=0.002). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that training based on the Health Belief Model leads to the enhancement of performance regarding oral health in pregnant women and thus prevents any increase in OHIS and DMFT levels during pregnancy.