Abstract
Women’s participation means their total involvement in the process of decision makings and implementation of all social phenomena. This is a precondition for the success of all health programs. Women’s participation in the maintenance of the society’s health is considered important. The program of women health volunteers not only provides the required skills and training to women volunteers it aims to disseminate health messages to all Iranian families. To evaluate the success of the program and the review of its impact on awareness- raising and changes in women’s behavior, a longitudinal survey was conducted on two groups of women with similarities in socio-economic conditions (one covered by the study and a control group) in the Oroumeih district. The study was done before and after the implementation of the program. Comparison of the data gathered on awareness-raising of women in the two groups, demonstrated a significant difference due to the activities of health volunteers which had raised the level of the awareness of the society. However, behavioral changes among the groups were not significant. It seems that to review changes in the behavior require more than the one year period of the study.
Keywords
)