Because of brucellosis importance, it is essential to investigate the factors related to the transmission of this disease and provide solutions for its prevention. These measures can help reduce the spread of disease and maintain the health of animals and humans. This study was conducted to determine the effect of education based on the theory of protected motivation on the promotion of preventive behaviors against brucellosis in Khodabandeh city ranchers using health care providers.
The results of the present study showed that after the implementation of the educational intervention, there was a significant difference in the knowledge about the general aspects of human brucellosis between the two groups. Also, after the implementation of the educational program, the awareness of ranchers about the ways of brucellosis transmission increased, and this difference was also significant. The results of Ramezankhani et al.‘s study4 showed that educational programs could significantly increase the level of awareness about Malaria disease in the intervention group compared to the control group. Which is consistent with the results of the present study. The results of the semi-experimental study by Allahverdipour18 and colleagues showed that the educational program was able to significantly improve the level of awareness about brucellosis in the intervention group, compared to the control group, which is in line with the results of this study. Therefore, it can be claimed that the implementation of the educational program can lead to an increase in people’s awareness of brucellosis and the importance of knowledge and prevention in disease control will be revealed.
It was observed that after the implementation of the educational intervention, there was a significant difference in the perceived susceptibility score between the two Intervention and control groups. Also, study results showed that the perceived severity constructs in the intervention group increased significantly immediately and 2 months after the intervention19. The study of Khosravi et al.20 and Khazaian study et al.21 showed that an increase in perceived susceptibility can lead ranchers to imagine the fact that they are at risk of contracting brucellosis and then adopt preventive behaviors.
There was a significant difference in the perceived severity scores between the intervention and control groups at different phases of data collection. Then, using the PMT can be effective for increasing the perceived severity of the brucellosis. The study of Farzadmehr et al., also showed that after the implementation of the educational intervention, the mean scores of perceived severity in the intervention group increased significantly compared to the control group22. Also, results a study showed that implementation of the educational intervention increased the perceived severity between the intervention and the control group1. In general, education can increase the severity perceived by ranchers and improve understanding of the risk of brucellosis, leading to the reduction of risky behaviors.
It was observed that there was no significant difference in self-efficacy between the two groups before the intervention, but after the intervention and 2 months later, the difference between the two groups was significant. Self-efficacy is one of the most important constructs of PMT, which was investigated based on this study. The results of this research showed that emphasizing self-efficacy can have a positive effect on a person’s final behavior, and increasing confidence in people’s ability to use protective behaviors increases the likelihood of their compliance. In addition, other studies have shown that educational programs based on self-efficacy can improve people’s confidence in their abilities and increase disease prevention behavior1,19.
There was no significant difference in the response efficiency scores between the two groups before the intervention, but after the implementation of the intervention and 2 months later, a significant difference was observed between the two groups. Response efficacy refers to a person’s expectation that adaptive responses and protective behaviors against a health hazard can eliminate the hazard. According to the research findings of Matlabi et al., after an educational intervention based on response efficiency, performing preventive behaviors against Corona significantly increased23. This finding is in agreement with the results of other studies that show that the response efficiency increased after the intervention. However, some studies have shown that there was no statistical difference in the mean response efficiency scores between the intervention and control groups, which may be due to the short duration of the intervention to change the attitude24,25. In general, education increases the adoption of protective behaviors by ranchers and increases the effectiveness of the response.
According to the findings, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the preventive behavior scores between the two groups before the intervention, but after the intervention and 2 months later, a significant difference was observed between the two groups. The results show that using the PMT can be effective for increasing preventive behaviors. Studies have shown that education as an effective factor can be effective in reducing diseases. This study also shows that the implementation of educational programs has increased preventive behaviors by ranchers.
According to the findings, it was observed that there was no significant difference in protection motivation between the two groups before the intervention, but after the implementation of the intervention and 2 months later, a significant difference between the two groups was clearly observed. According to the findings of Matlabi et al., the protection motivation scores increased after the implementation of the educational program in the intervention group. This may be due to the educational programs provided23. On the other hand, the results from Magai et al.‘s research showed that after the educational intervention based on this model, protection motivation in women increased significantly26, which is consistent with the findings of the present study and shows that education may have a positive effect on the motivation of ranchers.
Before the intervention, there was no significant difference in the perceived response cost between the two groups. However, after the intervention and after 2 months of follow-up, a significant difference was observed between the two groups. Based on studies, the higher the perceived response efficacy and self-efficacy and the lower the perceived response costs, the more likely the protective behaviors. In agreement with the findings of a study, the educational program significantly decreased the perceived response cost in the intervention group compared to the control group27. Helmes’ research also found that lower perceived response costs can increase the motivation to undergo genetic testing. These findings recommended that if people rationalize the costs associated with prevention behaviors, they are likely to perform these behaviors28.
According to the information, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the perceived reward between the two groups before the intervention, but after the implementation of the intervention and 2 months follow-up, a significant difference was observed between the two groups. As the study of Matlabi et al., this study showed, after the implementation of the educational program, the perceived reward decreased in the intervention group23. The lower the internal and external rewards of maladaptive behavior (lack of self-protection), can cause more likely to protective behaviors.
Regarding the construct of fear, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the scores of this construct between the two groups before the intervention, but after the implementation of the intervention and 2 months follow-up, a significant difference was observed between the groups. Fear acts through protection motivation and can influence health behaviors. The conformity of the results of this research with the reports of other studies26,29,30 shows that the increase in the mean score of fear after the implementation of the educational intervention indicates the positive relationship between education and the increase of fear and finally, the increase of protective behaviors. The analysis of the results of the present study concludes that raising the level of awareness and the constructs of the PMT through education may have positive effects in improving the preventive behaviors of brucellosis.
In present study confounding variables among ranchers affected the results as other studies that deal with this problem31,32, so in order to reducing this problem, after selecting the intervention group, an attempt was made to select the control group background variables in such a way that no significant difference was observed between two groups.
The most important limitation of this study was difficulty of objective observation of preventive behaviors that lead to using a self-report questionnaire. It suggests that future studies find more objective ways for measure preventive behaviors of brucellosis in ranchers.
