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Introduction :Rabies is one of the most important  zoonotic viral diseases that transfers to human beings  through animal bites. It is untreatable by the start ofdisease and leads to death.  More than 55000 people die annually of rabies who are mostly from Asia and Africa. Legislative actions do not seem to be  effective in reducing the incidence of bites. Public education, on the other hand, is the key to reduce animal bites. Knowing about the  appropriate health behavior change models is important for effective education. One of the models of behavior change in health education is the health belief model that focuses on changing the beliefs, which ultimately leads to behavior change. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of education based on health belief model on preventive behaviors of rabies in Ghods city in 2013.
Methods: This interventional quasi- experimental study was conducted among 120 people from Ghods city selected randomly. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire completed throughself-reporting. The questionnaire's content validity was approved by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. In order to analyze data SPSS ₂₀ software was applied. Paired and independent t-tests, analysis of variance, and non-parametric tests were also carried out.
Results: The findings showed that the difference between mean scores of knowledge, all HBM subscale s, and preventive behaviors was significantly different before and after the educational program. This shows the effect of educational program. There was a significant difference between participants' mean scores of perceived benefits and perceived barriers based on gender. Furthermore, there was also a significant difference between participants' mean scores of perceived severity and preventive behaviors in term of level of education.
Conclusion : Findings indicated that participants do not have enough knowledge about rabies to prevent themselves. So, educational programs are needed to increase public knowledge in this area. More studies should also be conducted about rabies based on other health behaviors change models.
 

Keywords: Health belief model, Preventive behaviors, Rabies

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