Application of the Intervention Mapping Approach to prevention of infectious respiratory diseases among Iranian Students

Introduction the infectious respiratory diseases highly contagious and transmissible, leading to a high incidence rate within populations and their epidemics often turn into a major global public health concern. For example widespread school closures during the COVID-19 or influenza pandemic reflect the prominent role of such educational settings in controlling the spread of the virus. Considering the multitude and multidimensional nature of the factors that influence the adoption of infectious respiratory diseases prevention behaviors, educational planning frameworks can be utilized to develop more effective programs for the promotion of these behaviors. This study aimed to develop, implement and evaluate an educational intervention program based on the intervention mapping approach for the Improving preventive behaviors of infectious respiratory diseases among students. Method A controlled pretest-posttest parallel study was conducted with the participation of 241 male seventh to ninth grade students. The educational intervention implemented for the intervention group consisted of six 45–60 minute sessions of education held over a period of one month, which involved lecture, interactive education methods like Q&A and group discussion, and the use of posters, pamphlets, videos, and PowerPoint presentations. The data collection tool was a researcher-made self-report questionnaire. Results The mean and standard deviation of the scores of the constructs for all students were as follows: Knowledge (4.07 ± 1.34), Perceived Susceptibility (18.87 ± 3.12), Perceived Severity (22.79 ± 3.58), Attitude (19.95 ± 2.81), Subjective Norms (33.29 ± 4.18), Perceived Behavioral Control (21.66 ± 4.11), and Practice (21.57 ± 3.33). While there was no statistically significant difference between the control and intervention groups before the intervention, a statistically significant difference was observed between them in terms of all determinants two and four months after the intervention (P < 0.05). Conclusion The educational intervention programs that are designed based on the identification of determinants of behavioral change appear to be more effective in achieving their goals. The findings of this study support the existing evidence of the effectiveness of school-based interventions designed and implemented based on intervention mapping in the Improving preventive behaviors of infectious respiratory diseases among students. The findings also suggest the theoretical framework used in this study can be used for the development of similar programs in the future.