Background: Effective management of type 2 diabetes poses a significant public,
medical and behavioral health challenge, predominantly with the high prevalence attributable
to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Aim: This study aimed to assess the effect of applying a
health belief model (HBM) on type 2 diabetic patients' knowledge, self-care practices, and
health beliefs. Research Design: A quasi-experimental pre and post-test, one-group only
design was utilized for this study. Setting: This study was carried out at the diabetic
outpatient clinics affiliated with the Medical Specialized Hospitals/Mansoura University,
Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Subjects: A convenient sample of 72 type 2 diabetic patients
who agreed to participate in the study was utilized. Tools of data collection: Four structured
interview sheets were designed, namely (socio-demographic, knowledge, self-care practices,
and health beliefs). The results: The study results revealed highly statistically significant
differences with an improvement in total patients' knowledge and self-care practices' score
in post-educational intervention based on HBM as compared with pre-intervention.
Additionally, post-intervention, the mean score of each HBM constructs: susceptibility,
severity, benefits, cues to action, and self-efficacy were increased significantly (except the
barriers construct which was declined) compared to pre-intervention (P-value <0.000).
Conclusion: The application of the HBM model was proved to be effective in increasing
knowledge, promoting the self-care practices and health beliefs of patients with type 2
diabetes mellitus. Recommendations: Increasing people's awareness of their disease,
treatment adherence, adopting a healthy lifestyle via education and training classes should be
emphasized. Beside, supporting, continuous, and well-designed training programs for
healthcare professionals should be established to apply HBM on
chronic disease prevention
and control.