Global Journal of Health Science; Vol. 12, No. 11; 2020 ISSN 1916-9736 E-ISSN 1916-9744 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 65 Assessment of Awareness and Knowledge About Rickets in Primary Health Care Centers in Saudi Arabia Based on Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory Alaa Alahmadi 1,2 , Hind Aljaloud 1,2 , Amen Bawazir 1,2 , Hoda Jradi 1,2 , Renad Alhaidari 3 & Eyad Alofi 3 1 King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 3 Taibah University, Ministry of Education, Medina, Saudi Arabia Correspondence: Alaa Alahmadi, MBBS, MPH, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Received: July 8, 2020 Accepted: September 1, 2020 Online Published: September 10, 2020 doi:10.5539/gjhs.v12n11p65 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v12n11p65 Abstract Background: Rickets is considered a significant health issue affecting children especially infants and toddlers. Despite the development affordable and accessible of a health care system in Saudi Arabia, Saudi children had a high prevalence of rickets. This study aims to assess knowledge and awareness of mothers about rickets after short interventional program based on the health belief model and social cognitive theory. Methods: A Quasi-experimental design pre-posttest type was carried out by using self-administered questionnaire. A sample size of 180 mothers who attended the well-baby clinic in primary health care centers in Riyadh and Medina Region were consented and then enrolled in the study. The questionnaire focused on 7 domains; demographic information and the other 6 domains based on health believe model and social cognitive theory. Results: The mean scores of knowledge, self-efficacy, and health belief model constructs (susceptibility, severity, benefits) significantly increased. The mean score and the percentages of knowledge and health belief model constructs show changes between pretest and post test result with statistical significant (27.9% in knowledge and self-efficacy, 34.9% in perceived susceptibility, 54.5% in perceived severity, 25.9% in perceived benefits, 11.7% in perceived barriers and 5.4% in cues to action) all were with a p-value of less than 0.05. Conclusion: Educational intervention based on social cognitive theory and health belief model were effective in improving knowledge, awareness and practice related to preventive behaviors of rickets. Keywords: rickets, believe, model, social, cognitive, Saudi 1. Introduction Rickets considers a major public health issue around the world. Rickets is disorders characterized by bone demineralization before growth plate to be caused. It is due to vitamin D deficiency (Wheeler, Dickson, Houghton, Ward, & Taylor, 2015). Vitamin D has a different physiological function in many systems in the human body. Vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins that play a significant physiological function in musculoskeletal and immune systems in the human body (Misra, Pacaud, Petryk, Collett-Solberg, & Kappy, 2008; Walker & Modlin, 2009). Rickets targets children of different age group usually presented before 18 months while hypocalcaemia appear after two years as a result of weaning (Dijkstra, Arpaci, Huijsman, Boot, & van den Akker, 2005). It has a significant impact on health that affects patient quality of life and causes high economic burden especially if it persists until adulthood (Munns et al., 2016). Rickets diagnosed by history, clinical examinations and laboratory test. A radiograph is one of the tools used to confirm the diagnosis of this illness (Fida, 2003). Globally, Rickets prevalence is increasing and many children were affected by this illness. It mostly affects infant and the prevalence among them vary from 2.7% and 45% (Almeida et al., 2018). According to a studies conducted in Canada and in New Zealand the incidence rates of rickets among children was 2.9 and 10.5 per 100 000 respectively (Ward, Gaboury, Ladhani, & Zlotkin, 2007; Wheeler et al., 2015). In Brazil, the prevalence of children