Abstract
BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis can develop gradually from early life and remain asymptomatic for a long time; this research was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of educational intervention based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) on the promotion of preventive behaviors of atherosclerosis in female students of a high school in Sabzevar city. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on female high-school students in Sabzevar city, northeastern Iran, from September 2021 to June 2022. In this study, 170 participants (85 people for the intervention group and 85 people for the control group) were selected using a multi-stage cluster random sampling approach. The tool used was a researcher-made questionnaire with three sections, whose validity and reliability were confirmed. The educational intervention was conducted offline and virtual in "Shad system" in three sessions for the intervention group by sending educational content designed with the methods of lectures, questions and answers, group discussions, sharing vicarious experiences, use of cues to action, and showing educational videos. Before the intervention and 2 months after the intervention, the questionnaire was completed by both intervention and control groups. The obtained data were analyzed by Stata software version 14. RESULTS: After the educational intervention, there was a significant difference between the intervention and control groups in all the EPPM constructs. Self-efficacy, perceived response efficacy, and knowledge were the most potent predictors of behavior (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study showed that the educational intervention based on the EPPM is effective in promoting the preventive behaviors of arteriosclerosis in female students through improving knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived response efficacy, and self-efficacy constructs. It is suggested to pay serious attention to the self-efficacy construct in planning educational interventions based on fear and threat for adolescent girls.