The effect of a community intervention based on protection motivation theory on brucellosis preventive behaviors in rural residents

Somayeh Ebrahimi; Hadi Tehrani; Vahid Ghavami; Mahdi Gholian-Aval

doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_1034_24

The effect of a community intervention based on protection motivation theory on brucellosis preventive behaviors in rural residents

J Educ Health Promot. 2025 Dec 29:14:545. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1034_24. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Somayeh Ebrahimi¹, Hadi Tehrani^{2

3}, Vahid Ghavami^{3

4}, Mahdi Gholian-Aval^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
² Department of Health Education and Health Promotion, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
³ Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Brucellosis is a major bacterial infectious disease common to human beings and animals. It is considered a prevalent infection in developing countries. The present research was carried out to explore the effect of an educational intervention based on the protection motivation theory (PMT) on brucellosis preventive behaviors in rural residents over 20 years of age.

Materials and methods: The present quasiexperimental study was conducted in 2022-23 on 96 rural residents of Mashhad, selected through a cluster sampling. The data collection instrument was a standard questionnaire to measure protection motivation including demographic variables, knowledge, and PMT constructs. The intervention and control groups completed the questionnaire immediately after and 3 months after the intervention. Five training sessions were held for the intervention group as lecture, group discussion, Q and A, and brainstorming. Data analysis was done in SPSS25 using repeated-measures analysis of variance, independent-samples T-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and Chi-square tests.

Results: The results of analyzing knowledge showed that the mean score of knowledge in the intervention group increased from 47.16 ± 8.3 to 74.79 ± 1.69 immediately after intervention and increased to 74.18 ± 2.63 3 months after the intervention (P < 0.001). However, no significant increase was observed in the control group (P = 0.387). The results showed that the mean score of protection motivation in the intervention group increased from 38.93 ± 10.08 to 55.52 ± 5.11 (P < 0.001). However, no significant increase was observed in the control group (P = 0.510). As the findings showed, the mean score of preventive behavior in the intervention group increased from 59.31 ± 13.05 to 87.38 ± 5.33 (P < 0.001). Yet, no significant difference was found in the control group (P = 0.750).

Conclusion: The present findings showed that an educational intervention based on PMT can improve brucellosis preventive behaviors; therefore, health officials are advised to use theory-based educational interventions to prevent brucellosis in rural residents to reduce the incidence of this disease.

Keywords: Brucellosis; health education; health promotion; motivation; rural health.