people's knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy towards preventive nutritional behaviors of cardiovascular diseases

Background: cardiovascular diseases (cvd) are one of the major causes of mortality in the world. incidence of such diseases has a direct relationship with lifestyle and nutrition. so, this study was conducted to investigate and compare knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy of kerman residents towards eating behaviors preventing cvd. methods: in this descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study, 400 men and women aged 20 to 60 years were randomly selected. a 31-item questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy regarding eating behaviors affecting cvd was used to collect the data. a panel of experts confirmed validity of the questionnaire. the questionnaire’s internal reliability was confirmed through cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.84) and test-retest method (0.71). results: the study population included 202 women (54.9%) and 166 men (45.1%). the overall average scores of perceived knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy out of 100, were respectively 84.15 ± 10.7, 47.84 ± 7.67, and 59.1 ± 16.57. in all three cases there was a significant difference between men and women (p < 0.05). men with higher university education had a better attitude and knowledge about health condition; this was effective on men’s self-efficacy. being a full-time employee also increased women's self-efficacy. conclusion: although knowledge of the studied population was appropriate and their self-efficacy was in the middle level, the participants' attitude was poor. self-efficacy of women was significantly higher than men and proper eating behavior was affected by attitudes, skills, and environmental factors.