Effectiveness of Educational Programs on Nutritional Behavior in Addicts Referring to Baharan Hospital, Zahedan (Eastern of IR Iran)

Background: there are many factors which affect nutritional status of addicted such as lack o f knowledge, incorrect attitude toward modification of food pattern, and careless to food intake.objectives: the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of educational program on nutritional behavior in addicts referring to baharan hospital in zahedan.patients and methods: thirty-six addict patients were selected randomly. after recording general demographic data of patients, nutritional behaviors were determined. to determine the effectiveness of nutritional educational program, pre and post-tests were performed. evaluation of nutritional behavior was determined as poor, fair and satisfactory levels. statically analysis was performed by spss software.results: most addict patients had a medium level of education. improvement in knowledge, attitude and practice (kap) of patients after intervention was observed as follows; decreasing kap in poor level (2.8% vs. 30.6%), (3% vs. 50%), (25% vs. 80.6%), respectively; also, increasing kap in fair level (7% vs. 55.6 %), (15% vs. 15%), (19% vs. 7%), respectively and increasing kap in satisfactory levels (77.8% vs. 13.8%), (50% vs. 8.3%), and (22.2% vs. 0%), respectively (p < 0.0001). there was a significant difference regarding the grade of kap in patients based on gender, marital status, and education level after education (p < 0.0001).conclusions: this study showed that nutritional kap was improved in addicts. after intervention, there was a significant difference in the score of knowledge, attitude, and practice scores in patients in the current study. kap was improved in patients after intervention including; decreased kap in poor level and increased kap in fair and satisfactory levels. this finding indicates that addict patients would like to modify their life style.