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Introduction: Self-medication is one of the challenging health issues among women throughout the world and Iran. Considering the main role of mothers in promoting health within the families, women play a key role in this regard. This study aimed at determining the effect of an educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) to change the women's self-medication behavior about consuming Prescription-Only Medicines (POM) in Yasuj City, Iran. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pre-test/post-test design over 192 women under the coverage of urban healthcare centers. These participants were selected by random sampling method and divided into the intervention and control groups. After measuring the constructs of HBM, a tailored intervention was designed and implemented in four weeks. The intervention program consisted of instructional sessions, pamphlet delivery, and short messages (SMS). After three months, educational contends were reevaluated and the results were compared with the pre-intervention data for both groups. Results: No significant difference was observed between the interventional and control groups before and after the intervention (p> 0.05). Comparison of the data collected from the questionnaires administered before and three months after the intervention showed a significant difference between the two groups regarding the perceived susceptibility construct (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Based on the results, the HBM was effective in changing women's self-medication behavior considering the prescription-only medicines. Self-medication can be reduced by increasing the women's perceived susceptibility to medication.

Introduction: Sexuality education is one of the most important educational needs for adolescents, and mothers may have the key role in educating these issues to their daughters. This study aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating of a training program for mothers to educate sexuality matters to their adolescent girls in Mahshahr, Iran. Methods: This field trial was conducted on 140 mothers having 12 to18-year girls from September to March 2012. Data was collected by two validated questionnaires. The first one assessed the “Parent-Child Relationship: Mother" questionnaire which indirectly measures the level of communication skills for mothers completed by the girls, and the second one measured "Knowledge and attitude about sexuality education to adolescents" questionnaire completed for mothers. Based on the results, an educational intervention for mothers consisted of three training sessions was designed and established. Before and three-month later data were analyzed and compared. Results: Three months after the intervention, the mean scores of mothers’ knowledge and attitude scores toward sexuality matters, was increased significantly (P

Background and Purpose: The World Health Organization declared violence against women a top priority for health and emphasized the importance of the world's attention to the prevention and control programs. This study was conducted aimed to identify the training needs of married women referring to health centers in Ahvaz with the objective of enabling the design of a program to prevent violence. Methodology: This sectional study consisted of two qualitative and quantitative studies. In qualitative study, the opinions of 30 married women residing in Ahvaz were collected and analyzed in four focus group discussions. using a validated and reliable questionnaire, the knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and performance of 320 married women in area of domestic violence were identified Findings: 79% of the women surveyed had adequate awareness about violence against women. 34% of the target group in the field of domestic violence against women has had the right attitude and more than 80% of them stated that violence by men is considered inevitable and natural. 89% of the target group expressed lack of efficacy for the prevention of domestic violence against women. The findings also suggest that there is significant relationship between education and early marriage with violent behavior. Conclusion: providing proper education and awareness to women and group discussion and clarification in order to change attitudes and increase efficacy in abused women against domestic violence are the necessary strategies which result in changing attitudes of women and increasing empowerment of women against domestic violence.