The Effect of Health Educational Program on Preventing AIDS in Self-reported Addicts' Wives (Kermanshah 2004)

Introduction: Regarding the dramatic increasing of AIDS in the world, women are mainly considered both as transmitters and sources of this fatal disease, who not only threatened their husbands but also their infants. The main goal of this research was the survey of the effect of health educational program on preventing AIDS in self-reported addicts' wives in Kermanshah in 2004.

Materials and Methods: This study is a quasi- experimental one in which 40 were randomly selected among the 237 patients. Data gathered in this study through reliable and validated questionnaires consisting 4 sections (General information, Knowledge, Attitude and Checklist). This research was carried out at two steps. After the completion of the questionnaires by the subjects, at the pre-test stage, an education al program based on the research results and their needs was designed and during 3 weeks it was performed by proper educational methods (lecture, question/answer, pamphlet, visual educational materials etc). To reduce the effect of interfering factors, the post test was performed two months later and the same questionnaires were completed by the same subjects. Finally the data was analyzed by T-test, Correlation, and Anova.

 Results: The findings indicated that 77.5% of the individuals were housekeepers. The most frequent age group was between 26-31 years old and the least one was between38-48. According to the results, there is a significant difference (p<0/0001) between the rate of knowledge before and after the educational program in other words, educational health program was effective in promoting the knowledge ,attitude level and positive performance of the subjects so that it increased knowledge, attitude and performance by %6.5, 69.9% and 65% respectively. The results also showed that media (TV & radio), by 100%, was the greatest resource of information about AIDS, while other resources such as Health Centers, friends etc were 50% and 45% respectively.

Conclusion: The results of this research showed that Health Educational Program had a positive effect on the promotion of health behavior of the subjects. Thus for promotion of the health behavior of people, educational and training program by media is strictly recommended.