Background: Among all cancers, malignancies of gastrointestinal tract are the most common cancer among Iranian population. Dietary behavior is thought to be the most important risk factor in gastric cancer. Fear and perceived severity are two important constructs of the protection motivation theory (PMT). Despite the evidence of the impact of these two constructs in modifying dietary habits against gastric cancer, their efficiency is not well established. Therefore, the present study was designed to determine the efficiency of the mentioned constructs.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 360 participants (180 males and 180 females) aged over 30 years old who presented to health centers in Babol, Iran in 2014. They were selected by a cluster sampling method in a population covered by health centers in Babol. Data collection was done using a questionnaire with acceptable reliability and validity, designed by a researcher based on two constructs of protection motivation theory. The data were analyzed by SPSS Version 20 using descriptive and analytical statistics such as ANOVA, linear and logistic regression analysis.

Results: The participants who entered in the study achieved 38.6 and 69.7% of the scores of fear and perceived severity, respectively. There was a significant difference between perceived severity with level of education (p<0.05). There was a significant inverse correlation between perceived severity with nutritional high risk behavior associated with gastric cancer in the significant level of 0.05 (r=-0.165). The constructs of perceived severity and fear predicted 38% of the variance of nutritional high risk behaviors associated with gastric cancer.

Conclusion: Constructs of fear and perceived severity of protection motivation theory with predicting 38% of the variance of nutritional high risk behaviors had an effective role against gastric cancer and may help in the design and implementation of educational programs for the prevention of gastric cancer.