Effectiveness of Community-based Intervention to Promote Iran’s Food-based Dietary Guidelines

Background: dietary guidelines are considered as a useful toolfor the promotion of healthy dietary behaviors. in iran, despitethe development of the latest national food?based dietaryguidelines, in 2006, it has not been introduced at the communitylevel yet. the present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness ofan intervention program to promote iran’s food?based dietaryguidelines (ifbdgs) in urban adult women.methods: a sample of 435 healthy women, aged 26 to 54 years,was randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups.the intervention group was designed based on the health beliefmodel (hbm). each subject in the intervention group receivedthree sessions of group education on ifbdgs and the foodguide pyramid and participated in a healthy cooking class. dietaryintake, cognitive outcomes related to the constructs of the hbm,physical activity, and the bmi were measured in both groupsbefore, immediately, and one month after the intervention. theoutcome measures were compared with the analysis of covariance(ancova), by adjusting for baseline values.results: the intervention group had a significantly lower totaldaily energy intake than the control group after the intervention(p=.000). the adjusted differences in the changes of bodymass index from the baseline were significant in both postintervention measurements in the intervention group compared tothe controls.conclusions: the intervention designed based on the health beliefmodel was effective in improving the adherence to fbdgs andcould serve as a basic model for the promotion of healthy nutritionbehavior among women in the primary health care setting.