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Background: This study was carried out on Iranian female adolescents to understand health needs for the purpose of designing health promoting intervention in schools., Methods: In this exploratory qualitative study, two focus group discussion (15 teachers) and 30 individual in-depth interviews were conducted among female adolescents in the eighth grade in Zahedan, Iran. Qualitative content analysis was used for data evaluation., Results: The views of students and teachers demonstrated nine of needs including: informing students about the schools' health project aims, education and training all dimensions of health with an emphasis on mental health, use of experts in various fields for education from other organisations, employing capable and trusted counselors in schools, utilisation of a variety of teaching methods, activating reward systems for encouraging students' participation in group activities, teaching communication and the ability to establish good relationships with parents and strategies for resolving family conflict, teaching parents and students high-risk behaviours and strategies for handling them as well as reforming wrong attitudes and indigenous sub-culture., Conclusion: This study found the different needs of Iranian female students compared to other cultures about a health promoting school programme. Therefore, their contribution can provide an insight for formulating policies and intervention in schools.

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer prevalent among women worldwide. Preventive behaviors such as early diagnosis through screening tests play an important role in prevention and control of the disease. This study aimed to determine the effects of educational intervention using a health belief model on breast cancer preventive behaviors., Methods: This interventional study was conducted on 130 female employees of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences who were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. A questionnaire, made and validated by the researcher, was completed before and one month after training by the study subjects. Data were analysed using regression analysis, independent sample T-test, chi-square and Pearson's correlation coefficient using the SPSS software 18., Results: There were significant changes in the training group, following educational intervention in the awareness construct and in some constructs of the model including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers, as well as in practice compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Nevertheless, perceived barriers remained as the only predictor in the model, such that for every unit increase in this variable, the behavior score increased by 18%., Conclusion: The use of educational intervention based on Health Belief Model had positive effect on knowledge of breast cancer preventive behaviors among participants.