Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Child growth disorders are a result of nutritional ignorance and lack of appropriate care and growth monitoring. This study was conducted to assess the effects of mothers' educational program based on the precede model on the prevention of growth retardation in 6 to12-month old children in the health centers of Shiraz city, Fars Province, Iran.

Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study included 120 mothers (60 cases and 60 controls) with a single exclusively-breastfed child under the coverage of health centers in Shiraz city, Fars province, Iran. A questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic characteristics and the precede model components (knowledge, attitude, enabling and reinforcing factors and maternal behavior). In addition, the children were weighed and their weights recorded. The mothers' educational intervention consisted of six 55 to 60-minute sessions. The questionnaire was completed by the case mothers before and 4 months after the intervention.

Results: The interventional educational program brought about statistically significant increases in the mean scores of knowledge (p<0.001) and attitude (p<0.001). Further analysis of the data also showed that the enabling (training sessions and using references) and reinforcing factors, as well as practice score of the mothers and the mean weight of the children in the case group improved significantly as compared to the control group (p<0.001).

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that an interventional educational program for mothers based on the precede pattern had a positive effect in the prevention of growth retardation in the study population.