Exploring breast cancer preventive lifestyle and social support of Iranian women: a study protocol for a mixed-methods approach

Effect of a theory-based educational intervention for enhancing nutrition and physical activity among Iranian women: a randomised control trial

OBJECTIVE

The relative contribution of health promotion models (HPM) to improve health-related behaviours in intervention programmes is still limited. Here, we tested whether Pender's HPM operationalised in the educational intervention was effective to modify nutrition and physical activity (PA) behaviours among Iranian women.

DESIGN

A randomised controlled field trial evaluating the efficacy of an educational intervention based on Pender's HPM to improve PA and nutrition behaviours from August 2016 to October 2016. R version 3.0.2 and SPSS version 16 were used to conduct multiple statistical analyses.

SETTING

Ten public healthcare centres in Bojnourd, Iran were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The experimental group received the full intervention programme, which included nine 4-h training sessions and consulting support via phone contact and social media group. The control group did not receive any intervention.

PARTICIPANTS

Women aged 4-6 years (n 202) were randomised to intervention (n 102) and control conditions (n 100) and completed baseline and 3-month follow-up.

RESULTS

In the experimental group, the intervention programme had a significant effect (P < 0·05) on all construct of Pender's HPM and behaviour outcome, and the estimates for prior behaviours, self-efficacy, interpersonal influences, feeling, perceived benefits and barriers, commitment and behaviour outcomes in the intervention group were 0·72 (95 % CI 0·31, 0·98), 0·54 (95 % CI 0·27, 0·71), 0·74 (95 % CI 0·27, 0·91), 0·52 (95 % CI 0·19, 0·75), 0·62 (95 % CI 0·22, 0·91), 0·63 (95 % CI 0·30, 0·86) and 0·56 (95 % CI 0·37, 0·85), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Educational intervention based on Pender's HPM was feasible and highly acceptable to modify PA and nutrition behaviours in the women population.

Predictors of physical activity among women in Bojnourd, north east of Iran: Pender's health promotion model

Background

This study examined how socio-demographic characteristics constructs derived from the health promotion model (HPM) influence the level of physical activity (PA) women in Bojnourd, North East of Iran.

Method

This cross-sectional study has been carried out through multi-stage sampling design on 356 women aged 18–60 years living in Iran. Data was collected through reliable and valid questionnaire survey women who were selected from their homes.

Results

Most of participants (53.40%) had a low level of physical activity behaviors with minimal physical activity (PA) scores. Using regression analysis showed that 23.22% of the total variance in PA behaviors was predicted by socio-demographic variables, whilst 40.81% of the variance in PA behaviors was predicted by constructs from the HPM. The results from Path modeling indicated that prior behavior, interpersonal influences, perceived self-efficacy, perceived barriers and commitment to PA, were significant predictors for PA behaviors with 86.93% of total effects on PA, whereas, activity-related affect and situational influences had no significant effect on the PA behaviors.

Conclusions

We found that constructs derived from the HPM are determinants of PA among Iranian women and may be important in developing educational intervention programs to facilitate a physically active lifestyle in this population.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13690-021-00698-x.

The perceived social support by Iranian women with breast cancer: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Social support has an important role in improving health outcomes and is considered as one of the crucial aspects of the modern care in cancer patients. Therefore, this article aims to explain the perceived experiences of women suffering from breast cancer towards social support.

METHODS

In this qualitative study, 22 women with breast cancer were selected through purposive sampling from 5 hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed by the Conventional Qualitative Content Analysis and Graneheim's and Lundman's approach, using MAXQDA software, version 10.

RESULTS

After completion of the analyzing process, 6 categories were appeared including "creating an empathic atmosphere by family and community," "being in relationship with others," "adaption to disease," "giving meaning to life," "satisfaction with the role of healthcare providers," and "the impact of others support in fighting with the disease."

CONCLUSION

According to the findings, good social support during the illness can result in the spiritual, mental, and physical well-being of the patients and is one of the most effective factors in fighting the disease and feeling of recovery. The findings of this study can be used to develop plans to help the patients to achieve more support from the family, healthcare providers, and the community and even providing the required supportive care for this group of women.

Knowledge and Perceptions of Common Breast Cancer Risk Factors in Northern Saudi Arabia

Background: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women around the world. The degree of adoption of a preventive lifestyle offers valuable information for planning appropriate intervention programs for improving women’s health. The objective of the present study was to assess the levels of breast cancer related knowledge among a Northern Saudi population. Methodology: In this cross sectional study, data were obtained from 566 Saudi volunteers living in the city of Hail, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Results: With regard to breast cancer risk factors, 427/566 (75.4%) of participants answered in the affirmative to whether breast cancer could be inherited. For early puberty and late menopause, 209/566 (37%) were in agreement with increased risk, for low and delayed child birth, 261/566 (46%), and for overweight and obesity, 210/566(37%). For the question of whether natural breast feeding can reduce the risk of breast cancer, only 35/566 (6.2%) said yes. Conclusion: There is a general lack of knowledge regarding several BC risk factors among the northern Saudi community which necessitates urgent implementation of educational programs.