the impact of an educational program on the stages of change for mammography screening among rural women with low health literacy

Background: the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of an educational program on the mammography screening stage of change among rural women with low health literacy. methods: in general, 52 rural women participated in this experimental study. the samples were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method and divided into two intervention (n=26) and control (n=26) groups. an educational program was implemented for the intervention group for one month. the data collection tool was a valid questionnaire based on constructs of the transtheoretical model (ttm) related to mammography screening, which was completed in the pre-test phase and after three and six months. the data were analyzed using spss 16 at the significant level of 0.05. results: there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups at the pre-test phase (p>0.05). the intervention group demonstrated considerable progress in the stage of change for mammography screening after three- and six-month follow-ups (p<0.001, odds ratio [or]=2.54). the odds ratio of progress in the stages of change in the intervention group compared to the control group significantly increased after three (p<0.001, or=4.29) and six (p<0.001, or=5.45) months of follow-up. in addition, the findings indicated a significant increase in the mean scores of decisional balance, processes of change, and self-efficacy in the intervention group compared to the control group three and six months after the educational intervention (p<0.005). conclusion: the educational program significantly advanced mammography screening stages among rural women with low health literacy. these results highlight the program’s effectiveness in enhancing screening behaviors in this underserved population.