Background and objective: Diabetes is a serious and a chronic disease. With proper training diabetes can be prevented up to 80%. Therefore, patients with diabetes should be trained in terms of self-care due to the reason that the most important factor of treating diabetes and health care is the patient. This study aimed to determine the effect of training program based on Health Belief Model developed with the fear of self-care behavior and HbA1c levels in patients with type II diabetes in urban-rural health centers in the city of Rasht.

Material and Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial study. The study population were 84 patients with type II diabetes covered by Rasht health centers. They were randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n = 42) and control (n = 42). Data were gathered through constructs of Health Belief Model developed with the fear of self-care behavior and HbA1c levels before and three months after the test. Control group was not intervened. But the test group were under intervention with 6 sessions of 30-45 minutes, based on pre-tests, using mixed teaching methods such as: speech, discussion, question and answer, role playing with a teaching aid like pamphlets, posters and instructional videos. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (measures of dispersion and central tendency), chi-square, t-tests and paired t-test was used through SPSS 21.

Results: After intervention, the mean HbA1c in the intervention group were significantly different. However, the mean HbA1c in the control group was not significant. The average grade was increased in the experimental group after the intervention, while in the control group this difference was not significant. And the average score of self-care behavior in the experimental group before and three months after the intervention, there was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.001). But this difference was not significant in the control group.

Conclusion: A detailed training program based on health belief model to increase perceived susceptibility and severity among patients and perceived benefits, and remove perceived barriers with enhancing self-efficacy as well as self-care behaviors in patients and reduction in hemoglobin A1c with type II diabetes is very beneficial.

Paper Type: Research Article.