Background: Cervical cancer is one of the major health problems and the third prevalent cancer in women all around the world. As a simple, inexpensive, and with no side-effects, Pap test is a reliable way to screen cervical cancer. This study aimed to investigate, the effects of educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on doing Pap smear tests among the rural women of the north of Iran. Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 160 rural women were randomly divided into control and experimental groups to experience a three-session intervention. The experimental group received the usual educational programs of rural health center and educational programs based on the HBM constructs through personal consultation, asking/ answering questions, and an educational pamphlet. The control group, received the usual educational programs of rural health center. The post-test data were collected 2 months after the intervention and analyzed in SPSS-18. Results: Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the control and experimental groups regarding the mean score of knowledge, performance and constructs of the HBM. After the intervention, however, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of knowledge performance and all constructs of the HBM in two groups (p < 0.001). Rate of doing the Pap smear test in the experimental group increased from 18.7 to 78.7% in the intervention group. Conclusion: These findings support the effectiveness of cervical cancer prevention programs based on the HBM. Therefore, conducting similar programs in other regions is recommended.

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the major health problems and the third prevalent cancer in women all around the world. As a simple, inexpensive, and with no side-effects test, Pap test is a reliable way to screen cervical cancer. This study aimed to investigate, the effects of educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on doing pap tests in the women living in the rural areas of the north of Iran.Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 160 rural women were randomly divided into control and experiment groups to experience a three session’s intervention. The experiment group received, educational programs based on the HBM constructs through personal consultation, asking/answering questions, and an educational pamphlet. The control group, received the routine educational programs of the health center. The post-test data were collected two months after the intervention and analyzed on SPSS-18.Results: Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the control and experiment groups in terms of the mean score of knowledge, performance, and the constructs of the HBM. After the intervention, however, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of knowledges, performance, and all constructs of the HBM of the two groups (p<0.001). The rate of doing a pap test in the experimental group increased from 18.7% to 78.7% in the intervention group.Conclusions: The findings supported the effectiveness of cervical cancer prevention programs based on the HBM. Therefore, conducting similar programs in other regions is recommended.

Background During menopause, women experience annoying symptoms which may affect their daily activities and quality of life. This study aimed to determine whether reproductive history, an important indicator of estrogen exposure across the lifetime, is associated with the severity of menopausal symptoms in women. Methods This study was a cross-sectional study conducted on 214 women aged 35–65 who were randomly selected, and data was collected by a predesigned structured questionnaire. Each item was graded by subjects and a total score was obtained by summing all subscale scores. Results There was a significant association between the somatic, psychological, and urogenital menopausal symptoms and reproductive characteristics. Women with a history of abortion had greater total (β = 0.194, p = 0.009), and psychological (β = 0.230, p = 0.002) symptoms score. Women with higher number of children were more likely to have higher somatic (β = 0.212, p = 0.005) symptoms than others. Conclusions Our findings showed reproductive factors may have an influence on the severity of menopausal symptoms. After confirmation by further studies, these findings may help target women at risk of more severe menopausal symptoms at later ages.