Health Education and Health Promotion

Abstract Aims: This study aimed to investigate the effect of a blended educational intervention based on the health belief model (HBM) about COVID-19 on teachers' preventive behavior.
Materials & Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on female teachers in four districts affiliated with Education Organization Karaj Iran. Then, one of these two districts was assigned to the intervention group (n=70) and the other to the control group (n=70) by the lottery method. The educational intervention was conducted via three online platforms. Our intervention was named BEHTA. It included a specifically designed website, holding virtual and group discussion classes, and using a popular social network messenger.
Findings: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups before training (p>0.05) but immediately and 12 weeks after training, the two groups had a statistically significant difference in all constructs (p<0.05). In the control group, the mean score of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy did not differ significantly (p>0.05), but the mean score of behavior decreased (p=0.027).
Conclusion: The educational intervention improves all constructs regarding COVID-19 in the intervention group.

Abstract Aims: This study aimed to design and psychometric a tool for measuring the knowledge, beliefs, and behavior of teachers regarding COVID-19 preventive behaviors.
Instrument & Methods: The goal was to create a tool that may be used to create an educational intervention that promotes preventive behaviors. A 60-item scale regarding COVID-19 preventive behaviors was developed upon literature review. Then, face and content validity were evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methods, through the involvement of the participants and expert panel. The internal consistency and reliability were assessed and approved using Cronbach's alpha index and test-retest.
Findings: The face and content validity of the primarily developed scale was confirmed by item impacts of 1.5, 0.49 CVR, and 0.79 CVI, and the number of items dropped to 60. The reliability of the instrument was approved by Cronbach's alpha of 0.67 to 0.95 and a correlation coefficient of 0.65 to 0.93.
Conclusion: Based on the results, the scale that was developed using the constructs of the HBM for COVID-19 preventive behaviors among teachers had appropriate validity and reliability.