A Model-based Survey to Predict Head Lice Infestation (HLI)-related Preventive Behaviors Among the Iranian Primary School-aged Children

Abstract

Objective: Ectoparasites are one of the important health-threatening pathogens worldwide, and head lice infestation (HLI) is a common disease among primary school-aged children. The intent of the current research was to envisage Iranian school-aged children’s cognitions, risk perceptions and their behavioral attributes with regard to HLI and ul-timately to outline an evidence-informed basis to support formulation of future strategic directions in alleviation of the ectoparasite’s public health burden. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 randomly selected students aged 6-11 years who had been enrolled in two elementary schools with the highest prevalence rate of HLI in the city of Paveh, West of Iran. Study data collection tool was a researcher constructed instrument which had been adapted based on the extend-ed Health Belief Model (HBM)’s constructs. Results: The concluded model fit indices were all in the vicinity of ac-ceptable range. The utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) on the study data revealed that perceived susceptibility of HLI had the stron-gest impact of the students’ relevant health behavior. Other important predictors of the students’ HLI-related health behavior were their perceived barriers and severity. Conclusion: The conducted study aligns well with the efforts to rec-ognize predictors of adapting HLI-related preventive behaviors among school-aged children and is a step forward to provide evidence for empirical health interventions to mitigate HLI prevalence.