Does planned visual education affect university students' attitudes and beliefs about skin cancer?

Aim: The aim of this study to evaluate the effect of planned visual education based on the Health Belief Model among university students' attitudes and beliefs towards skin cancer. Materials and Methods: This cluster-randomized controlled experimental study, was conducted with 116 university students (intervention group: 58; control group: 58) studying in two departments in two faculties of a university. The data were collected with Student Identification Form and Health Belief Model Scale in Skin Cancer. Four interviews were conducted in the intervention group, one month later, three months later and seven months later. In the control group, two interviews were conducted pretesting and seven months later. Results: After the planned visual training program based on the Health Belief Model, a significant difference was found between students in the intervention group and students in control group in terms of perceived sensitivity, perceived severity, perceived benefit, perceived barriers and self-efficacy scores. While there was a significant difference between the students in the intervention group in terms of perceived sensitivity, perceived severity, perceived benefit, perceived barriers and self-efficacy scores, there was no difference between them in terms of perceived severity scores. Seven months after the first interview, it was found that while the perceived sensitivity, perceived seriousness, perceived usefulness, perceived disability and self-efficacy scores of the intervention group increased more significantly than the control group, the perceived disability scores decreased. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that the planned visual education based on the Health Belief Model had a positive effect on university students' attitudes and beliefs towards skin cancer. Key words: Health belief model, health attitudes, university students, skin neoplasms