Uncorrected Proof Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2018 December; 20(S1):e59800. Published online 2018 April 16. doi: 10.5812/ircmj.59800. Research Article Comparison of Multimedia and SMS Education on the Physical Activity of Diabetic Patients: An Application of Health Promotion Model Hamideh Lari 1 , Azita Noroozi 1, 2, * and Rahim Tahmasebi 2, 3 1 Department of Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran 2 The Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center, The Persian Gulf Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran 3 Department of Biostatistics, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran * Corresponding author: Associate Professor in Health Education, Department of Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. Tel: +98-9177724605, E-mail: azitanoroozi@yahoo.com Received 2017 August 08; Revised 2017 October 10; Accepted 2017 November 18. Abstract Background: Physical activity is a vital element in diabetic patients and training of this behavior is important. Therefore, the present study aims to compare the effect of multimedia and short message service (SMS) based on the health promotion model on the physical activity of patients with Type 2 diabetes. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 37 subjects in the SMS group and 40 subjects in the multimedia group were studied. Subjects in the SMS group received training messages based on the health promotion model for 2 weeks, and the subjects of multimedia group received a teaching CD based on the health promotion model. Both groups completed the questionnaires at the beginning of the study, 2 weeks after training and 3 months after the 2nd stage. Results: The participants in the 2 groups were similar in terms of demographic variables. The comparison of the 2 groups showed that there was a significant difference between 2 groups in terms of the perceived self - efficacy (p = 0.032), benefits (p < 0.001), family (p = 0.024), and friend support (p = 0.002), however, the perceived health status (p = 0.271) and barriers (p = 0.085) had no statistically significant difference between 2 groups during the study. Additionally, 3 months after the education, the mean metabolic equivalent of task (MET) increased to 2634.71 ± 502.01 and 2614.03 ± 592.45 in SMS and multimedia groups respectively; there was no significant difference between the 2 groups (P = 0.662). Conclusions: The results of this study showed more usefulness of multimedia rather than SMS education in changing the belief of diabetic patients about the physical activity and also the effectiveness of both educational methods for promoting physical activity of diabetic patients. Keywords: Health Promotion Model, Physical Activity, Diabetes, Multimedia Learning, SMS Training, E - health Intervention 1. Background Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder. Type 2 dia- betes includes 90% of the total number of diabetics (1). The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in Asia has risen and it has been predicted that 77.6% of people with diabetes in the 2030s will be residents in developing countries (2), also in Iran, the number of people with diabetes is expected to triple in the next 15 years (3). The cost of controlling diabetes is high and in many countries, at least 10% of the total health care budget is spent on diabetes (4). The causes of Type 2 diabetes are mostly environmen- tal factors as well as inappropriate nutritional habits. The lack of physical activity are effective in developing of dia- betes (5) and therefore, the American Diabetes Association recommends that Type 2 diabetic patients perform at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise in a week (6). Since the basis of diabetes control is self - care and the main emphasis of the health promotion model is self - reg- ulation, therefore, the health promotion model for chang- ing the behavior in this group of people seems to be effec- tive. This model includes 3 groups of concepts including individual characteristics and experiences, behavioral spe- cific cognition, and affects and behavioral outcomes. The concept of individual characteristics and experiences in- clude prior related behavior and personal factors and the concept of behavioral specific cognition and affects includ- ing constructs of perceived benefit and barrier, self - ef- Copyright © 2018, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited