@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2014;1(1):45-36

Background
... [1-4].The true sexual relationship acts as a background for improving the feelings and emotions between the couples and continues to be a positive period which causes better and more efficient training for children. Having a healthy sexual relationship depends on different factors like cultural beliefs, university degrees and family educations [5,6]. …[7-9].
Previous Studies
Many Interventional programs have been proposed for promoting the sexual health among the young people and teenagers which just some of them had been successful so far [6,10]. Some scholars believe that the reason of unsuccessfulness in these programs is disregarding the etiological studies and their foundations without regarding the psychosocial models as a determined conceptual framework in educational intervention planning [6]. …[11, 12].
Aim(s)
This study aimed to investigate the beliefs relating to the sexual health among couples who are about to get married by utilizing Health Belief Model.
Research type
This is a descriptive-analytic and cross sectional study.
Research society, place and time
This is a descriptive-analytic and cross sectional study.
Sampling method and number

Used devices&materials
Data were collected using the anonymous questionnaires for which two experienced interviewers were used. In this study, 480 questionnaires were distributed among study units and 400 questionnaires were collected (answering rate=84%). Data were collected using written questionnaire and via self- reporting method. The researcher - made questionnaire included three parts consisting of 5 questions about the demographic data of participants in part 1, knowledge about the effective factors on sexual health in part 2 and the constructs of Health Belief Model in part 3. Also in preliminary study, the reliability of this part of questionnaire was 0.17 using split half test. The third part of the questionnaire included variables of health belief model using the similar questionnaire [6] and the perceived susceptibility was measured regarding the studied subject. The reliability of questionnaire was evaluated using test retest method on another 40 person group. The rate of Interclass correlation coefficient(Cronbach's alpha) of questions were 0.75 for perceived susceptibility, 0.82 for perceived severity, 0.79 for perceived benefits , 0.84 for perceived barriers and 0.72 for cues to action.Statistical analysis Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 and t test for comparing means in two independent societies, also one way ANOVA for comparing the means in more than two independent societies. The relationship between the constructs of Health Belief Model was investigated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
Findings by Text
The participants were between 13 to 40 years old with age mean of 23.4±4.5 and most of them were 21 to 31 years old. 42.2% of couples had diploma and 29.2% hade university degrees, also 79% of them were residents in urban areas. Regarding the results of the study, 40.2% of participants had small businesses, 25.8% were housewives, 14.4% were students, 11.8% were the state organization personals and 7.8% had no jobs. According to the results of statistical test, perceived susceptibility, severity and benefits and cues to action had positive and significant correlation with knowledge and reverse correlation with perceived barriers. Also the perceived barriers had positive and significant correlation with perceived susceptibility and hade reverse correlation with perceived benefits and cues to action. The construct of perceived benefits had positive and significant correlation with perceived severity (p<0.05; Table 1). Acquiring higher mean in the certain belief suggested the prevalence of that belief among couples about to get married (Tables 2 and 3). Internet and friends were the most important cues to action relating to sexual matters (Graph 1). The variables like age, gender, education level and occupation had significant relationship with perceived susceptibility and also variables like education level, place of residents, and employment status had significant relationship with perceived severity (p<005). Also the significant relationship between the perceived benefits and barriers and variables of age, education level, place of residents and employment status were other results of present study (p<0.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between cues to action and gender, education level, place of residents and employment status (p<0.05; Table 4).
Main comparison to the similar studies
… [5, 13]. The above results can result from the fact that couples who are about to get married underestimate the likelihood of complications and side effects relating to unhealthy sexual behaviors or their intensity while almost all of the couples are likely to face with intense complications[14]. The results of this study is consistent with the achievements of other studies which suggest the average level of beliefs of thread and fear from the complications of unhealthy sexual behaviors [5-11]. …[15-17]. In this investigation, the housewives had higher perceived susceptibility to the complications of unhealthy sexual relationship due to the lack of financial independence and fearing from breaking off the family infrastructure and divorce. Also in this study, the participants with higher education level and certainly these education levels, being staff of student reported higher perceived severity to the complications and side effects of unhealthy sexual relationship. It seems that we can increase the perception of likelihood of these consequences by rising up the knowledge relating sexual health [18]. …[19-21]. In this study, perceived barriers for making true sexual relationship were more among males than females which similar results were received in Deptula et al.[9]. The status of cues to action relating to sexual relationship was reported to be average and this means that there is no any acceptable cue to action for making true sexual relationship, the above mentioned results is consistent with similar studies in this regard [5,22]. …[23,24].
Suggestions
This finding suggests the necessity of planning the regular and targeted educational programs and preparing educational materials suitable for educational needs of these groups.
Limitations
The limitations of this study were unwillingness of some couples to participate in the study due to the sensitivity of subject and lack of time and this fact decreased the percentage of answering in participants.
Conclusions
The perceived susceptibility and severity of unhealthy sexual behavior consequences among the couples is not in favorable level but the level of perceived benefits and barriers is relatively favorable.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this article acknowledge and thank all the participants, and authorities of Hemedan University of medical sciences.
Conflict of interest
None declared
Ethical Permissions
The present study is approved by the ethical committee of Hamedan University of Medical sciences.
Funding Sources
This article was extracted from a research proposal approved by Hamedan University of Medical sciences (Register No. 981119176666) and done via financial support of deputy of research and technology and thereby they are highly acknowledged.

TABLES and CHARTS

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