Abstract
BACKGROUND: Globally, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are acknowledged as a primary cause of death and morbidity. Using the health belief model (HBM) can help individuals believe in adopting a healthy lifestyle and lower their modifiable risk of developing CVDs. AIM: The study was conducted to assess the effect of an educational program on changing CVDs health beliefs and motives among administrative staff at the faculty of medicine at Ain Shams University (ASU). METHODS: A quasi-experimental study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine at ASU. CVDs risk assessment was done for 214 administrative staff, and 79 of them agreed to participate in the interventional stage. Data were collected before the educational sessions and at 3-, 6-, and 9-month intervals after the sessions. RESULTS: The study included 214 participants, mostly females (74.3%), with a mean age of 48.9 ± 7.95 years old. Based on the WHO/ISH prediction risk score, 46.7% of administrative staff had low CVDs risk, 31.3% had moderate risk, and 22% had high risk. Males mainly had a moderate risk (50.9%) and high risk (27.3%) of developing CVDs. Among participants enrolled in the educational program (79), the mean total score of the HBM subscales revealed significant improvements from baseline to the 3-month follow-up, except for the preventive behavior subscale. However, there was a slight decline at the 6- and 9-month follow-up periods. At 9 months, significant improvements were observed in most HBM constructs, including perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy (effect sizes = 0.130-0.312, all p = 0.001). The total health score also increased (effect size = 0.322, p = 0.001). In contrast, preventive behavior showed no meaningful change (effect size = 0.010, p = 0.390). CONCLUSIONS: According to the WHO/ISH risk score, more than half of the individuals had a moderate to high risk of CVDs. The study demonstrated that administrative staff members' knowledge of CVDs behavioral risk factors was successfully increased by a brief HBM-based educational program. All HBM domain scores showed a significant increase, except for "preventive behavior" domain score, after three months; however, after six and nine months, there was a small decline.