Abstract

Background: The effect of instructional models on the changing behavior of consuming fruit and vegetables in the prevention of diseases caused by consumption of foods including rice, contaminated with toxic metals, has not been investigated in Iran yet. Objective: To compare an Ecological-social model (ECO) group and Control group in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods: This research involved implementation of a six-month randomized controlled educational interventionist program into a group of Ecological-social framework along with a control group, totally summing up to 160 women between 18 and 50 years of age in Ilam, Iran in 2014. The questionnaire included knowledge, social support construct (immediate family, relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbors.) and fruit and vegetable intake in both groups before and after the intervention was examined. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 using the signed ranks test, and repeated measures analysis of variance analysis, and confidence interval of 95 were employed. Results: The results of the signed ranks test showed a significant increase in social support in the intervention group (p<0.001). This test showed a significant increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and a significant increase in the number of women using healthy rice (p<0.001), and a significant reduction in the number of women consuming unhealthy rice in the intervention group (p<0.001), that determines dietary intake improvement after the intervention compared with before the intervention (p<0.01). However, this improvement was not observed in the control group. Conclusions: The results showed that ECO plays an effective role in improving fruit and vegetable consumption in women. Therefore, this model was implemented as a health protocol through health-care centers to conduct the prevention of complications resulting from the use of food contaminated with toxic metals.