en عمومى General مقاله اصیل Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;">Background: Farmers often use agricultural pesticides (Ps) unsafely, posing significant occupational hazards. This study aimed to identify factors associated with behavior in Ps use among farmers using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB).<br> Methods: This study investigated 326 farmers of Khuzestan using the TPB and an extended version, ETPB-P, which included perceived threat and exaggerated risk-related messages as additional variables to the original theory.<br> Results: All TPB variables, except for subjective norms (&beta; = 0.072, t = 1.303), were significantly associated with behavioral intention (BI) to take protective measures in pesticide use (P < 0.05). TPB paths could predict 32% (R2 = 0.32) of agricultural pesticide use behaviors, while the ETPB-P paths improved predictive ability to 60% (R2 = 0.60). The ETPB-P model demonstrated stronger power in predicting farmers&rsquo; intention and behavior to use pesticides safely than the original TPB.<br> Conclusion: The extended TBP model can serve as a useful framework for designing occupational health promotion programs that could improve safety behavior in pesticide use among farmers.</div> Farmers, Pesticide, Occupational health, Theory of planned behavior, Least-squares analysis 1 13 http://ehemj.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-389&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Elham Nejadsadeghi n.sadeghiel1358@yahoo.com 100319475328460020621 100319475328460020621 No Department of Public Health, School of Health, Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, Iran Amir Shafiei Alavijeh amir_shafiei_a@alum.sharif.edu 100319475328460020622 0009-0009-6952-1705 No Entekhab Industrial Group, Isfahan, Iran Anthony Coetzer-Liversage anthony.coetzerliver@uri.edu 100319475328460020623 100319475328460020623 No Department of Psychology, Social Sciences Research Center, University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island, United States Neamatollah Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard n.jaafarzade@gmail.com 100319475328460020624 100319475328460020624 No Environmental Technologies Research Center, Medical Basic Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Farkhondeh Jamshidi dr.jamshidi2009@yahoo.com 100319475328460020625 100319475328460020625 No Toxicology Research Center, Medical Basic Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Sahand Jorfi jorfi-s@ajums.ac.ir 100319475328460020626 100319475328460020626 No Environmental Technologies Research Center, Medical Basic Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Marzieh Araban Araban62@gmail 100319475328460020627 100319475328460020627 Yes Corresponding author: Toxicology Research Center, Medical Basic Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Christos A. Damalas cdamalas@agro.duth.gr 100319475328460020628 100319475328460020628 No Department of Agricultural Development, School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, Orestiada, Greece