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Paper text:
it is caused by viruses , drugs , alcohol , fat tissue replacement , and other factors .
hepatitis b has occurred throughout the world , and there are more than 400 million people with its chronic form . in iran ,
the occurrence rate of this disease within the general population is between 1.4% to 6.5% , which is considered to be a moderate outbreak ( 1 ) .
the distribution of cases is different in various parts of the country , so some areas , such as the province of fars , have an occurrence rate of 1.7% , whereas the rate in sistan and baluchestan has reached 5% ( 2 ) .
iran , among other countries , is endemic for hepatitis , and the prevalence of chronic carriers of hepatitis b in the country is between 2.5% and 3.6% ( 3 ) .
hepatitis b is the most important cause of liver disease and the main cause of deaths from hepatitis in iran ( 4 ) .
hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the ten most common causes of cancer in the world , which can be caused by hepatitis b. the virus persists in all bodily fluids , and its means of transmission include sexual contact , intravenous injection by drug users , transmission from mother to child , hemodialysis , sharing of dental devices , contamination of blood and blood products , tattooing , cupping , acupuncture , and occupational exposures among medical staff ( 5 ) .
the power of transmission is 100 times higher than that of hiv , and unlike hiv , the hepatitis b virus can survive in dried blood outside of the body for more than a week ( 6 ) .
about 40% of cases of hepatitis b and c in the health care industry around the world are caused by occupational exposure ( 7 ) .
health care personnel and medical students are therefore at high risk of infection , and hepatitis b is one of the most serious threats to employment and the most common blood - borne infection among staff ( 8) .
the most infections caused by occupational exposure occur at the time of using needles that may contain blood ( 9 ) .
the most important ways to prevent the disease in the community is to provide the necessary training and active immunization for groups at risk . for prevention and pre - intervention training ,
it is important to examine the knowledge , attitudes , and practices of the target group ( 10 ) , including an assessment of the health belief model , which focuses on changes in beliefs and behavior in relation to a perceived threat ( in terms of sensitivity and severity ) .
people must feel threatened by a problem and then understand the depth of the risk and its consequences .
on the basis of the behavioral intention model , the most important determinant of the behavior of an individual is behavioral intention , which includes the decision to ask for special treatment ( 10 ) .
the aim of this study was to determine the knowledge , perceived risk , and behavioral intentions regarding hepatitis b of students in the faculty of nursing , midwifery and health at shahrekord azad islamic university .
this was a descriptive study ( cross - sectional ) that was conducted with students from the faculty of nursing , midwifery and health at islamic azad university of shahrecord .
the participants were selected by simple sampling according to the formula of n = z2  s2 / d2 ( given a confidence level of 95% , an estimation error of 2 units per mean , and with the knowledge score s = 17 and d = 2 ) . it was estimated that 277 students would be needed , and factoring in the probability of loss , 300 questionnaires were completed .
the data collected in this study were questionnaires that contained two sections : the first section included demographic information , and the second section included eight questions about knowledge ( score range : 0 - 8 , with the score for the correct answer being 1 , and the score for the wrong answer or 
do nt know  being zero ) , seven questions about general perceived risk ( score range : 7 - 35 ) , two questions about individual perceived risk ( score range : 2 - 10 ) , and four questions about intentions ( score range : 4 - 20 ) .
the questions were measured with a 5-point likert scale from  strongly agree  to  strongly disagree . 
the validity and reliability of the questionnaires was confirmed by the study of nasirzadeh et al .
( 10 ) with cronbach s alpha coefficient ( knowledge = 0.8 , perceived risk = 0.86 , and behavioral intention = 0.62 ) and the use of health professionals and other experts .
the data were analyzed by using spss version 18 software with a correlation test , a t - test , and anova .
the total number of students participating in this study was 300 , with an average age of 21.45  2.47 , and the ages ranged from 18 to 38 years .
the degrees that they were pursuing included nursing ( n = 100 ) , midwifery ( n = 100 ) , family health ( n = 50 ) , and health and disease ( n = 50 ) .
the mean knowledge score of the students was 4.77  1.71 , the mean general risk perception score was 24.22  3.44 , the mean personal risk perception score was 6.57  1.97 , and the mean behavioral intention score was 12.6  2.97 ( tables 1 and 2 ) .
the results showed that there was a significant difference between the scores for knowledge ( p = 0.002 ) , personal perceived risk ( p = 0.001 ) , and behavioral intention ( p = 0.009 ) depending on the grade of training ( table 3 ) .
the data presented in table 4 revealed that there was also a significant difference in the scores for knowledge and behavioral intention depending on sex ( p = 0.05 ) .
the results also indicate that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of knowledge , general perceived risk , personal perceived risk , and behavioral intention depending on the field of study of the participants .
the results of this study showed that the mean score of awareness of participants about hepatitis b was moderate , which is consistent with the results reported by ghiasi et al .
the data presented in the study by wiecha ( 16 ) showed that the knowledge that american immigrant adolescents had about hepatitis b was low , and the results of the research presented by la torre et al .
( 17 ) revealed that the awareness of high school students about hepatitis b was not satisfactory , and therefore the need for more health education programs was stressed . according to results of a study by zabihi ( 18 ) , the majority of people , fear this disease due to lack of information , false news , or general unawareness , and an appropriate solution would be to draw more awareness to it .
( 19 ) revealed that a small number of young people aged 18 to 24 have no information about hepatitis .
( 20 ) stated that 80% of biology students answered the knowledge - related questions about hepatitis b correctly .
according to the various results that have been reported , people need to be better informed about hepatitis b. the results of this study showed that the mean score of general perceived risk for the participants was 24.2  3.44 , which is consistent with the results reported by nasirzadeh et al .
one of the factors influencing this difference can be attributed to the different target groups in two studies .
it seems that students of the medical sciences may be more aware of their risk of hepatitis b than others .
the present research also revealed that the mean score of personal perceived risk was 6.51  1.97 out of a possible 10 , which is consistent with the results of nasirzadeh et al .
( 10 ) , baghianimoghadam et al . ( 21 ) , and tibdewal et al .
. however , these results are also different from the data presented by gonzales et al .
( 19 ) , and the disparity can perhaps once again be attributed to the difference in the target groups .
the results also revealed that the mean score of intentional behavior of the participants was moderate , which is consistent with the results reported by baghianimoghadam et al .
based on the behavioral intention model , the most important determinant of individual behavior is the person s intention .
milne et al . ( 23 ) have shown that a specific behavior is more likely to occur in situations where the relationship between the intention and behavior is stronger .
more studies are needed in this area to exclude the possibility of other known factors from influencing behavioral intentions .
there was also a significant difference between the mean scores of knowledge , general perceived risk , and behavioral intention depending on the semester of study of the participants . during each semester , students acquire more experience , which leads to greater awareness and understanding of personal risk and behavioral intentions .
( 10 ) ; however , they are once again different from the results reported by gonzales et al .
the correlation results revealed that there was a direct correlation between the mean scores for knowledge and behavioral intentions and other studies showing similar results ( 13 , 24 ) .
intention is involved in the pre - operative stage of practice , and during this stage , the person is ready to act , but this does not always translate into behavior because various factors can impede the translation of individual intention into conduct .
the results of the demographic variables revealed that the mean score for knowledge was higher for women than for men , which is consistent with the results of the studies by ghiasi et al . and ahmadi et al .
( 11 , 12 ) ; however , these results were inconsistent with the results of the study by zabihi et al .
in addition , the proportion of higher consciousness of intentions among the women is consistent with the findings of other studies ( 10 , 13 , 14 , 19 , 20 ) .
it seems that female students engage in more preventative activities than male students , which leads to the assumption that women consider the importance of diseases , complications , and care more seriously than men .
the present study also revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores for knowledge and individual perceived risk based on the degrees of the participants , which is consistent with the results reported by nasirizade et al .
the results of the study by thomson , which was conducted in canada , showed that the awareness of literate women concerning hepatitis b was generally lower than others with higher education .
it was also shown that the mean scores for knowledge , general perceived risk , individual risk perception , and behavioral intentions of students studying midwifery were higher than the scores of the other groups .
since this field is considered to involve treatment , such individuals may have been educated differently as well as being required to deal with patients with the disease , leading to the relatively higher scores than those for the other disciplines .
similarly , the data presented by nasirizadeh et al . ( 10 ) also showed that students in midwifery programs had higher awareness about hepatitis b than others .
a limitation of this study was the cross - sectional design , which limits the generalizability of the results . for more complete and accurate results
, it is proposed that a similar study be done on a more extensive campus .
furthermore , the lack of motivation to respond to the questionnaire by the students may have also affected the results of study .
backgroundhepatitis b is the most common cause of liver disease , and medical students are a risk group for the disease given their future occupations.objectivesthe aim of the study was to assess of predictors of hepatitis b in the faculty of nursing , midwifery and health at shahrekord islamic azad university in 2014.materials and methodsthis cross - sectional study was conducted with 300 students from the faculty of nursing , midwifery and health at shahrekord islamic azad university . 
 the students answered questionnaires with items covering demographic characteristics , individual knowledge , public risk perception , perceived personal risk , and behavioral intentions regarding hepatitis b. the data were analyzed with spss version 18 software.resultsthe mean knowledge score of the students was 4.77  1.71 , the mean public risk perception score was 24.22  3.44 , the mean perceived personal risk score was 6.51  1.97 , and the mean behavioral intention score was 12.06  2.97 . 
 there were significant differences in the mean knowledge scores in terms of gender , level of awareness , and level of education . 
 there were also differences in the mean behavioral intention scores in terms of gender and field of study , the mean perceived personal risk scores in terms of level of education and field of study , and the mean public risk perception scores in terms of field of study.conclusionsaccording to the results of this study , it is necessary to implement educational intervention in order to allow students to identify risk factors and overcome barriers to understanding the implications of the disease in this context .