Determining factors affecting adopting preventive behaviors of skin cancer is helpful in designing interventions promoting these behaviors. The present study was conducted aimed to analyze preventive behaviors' path of skin cancer in rural women based on protection motivation theory. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 230 rural women in the west of Iran were selected randomly. Data were collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire including demographic information and structures of

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... ction motivation theory by interview with rural women and then analyzed using SPSS 22 and LISREL8.8. Results: In relation with skin cancer preventive behaviors, 27.8% of women were dressed up when working under the sun, 21.7% used sunscreen cream, 5.7% wore cap and 4.8 wore gloves and sunglasses. Protection motivation theory and per capita income explained 76% of motivation variance and 25% of the variance of skin cancer preventive behaviors. Response efficacy structure was the strongest predictor of the motivation of protection (0/001> p, ß= -0.44) and per capita income (0/001> p, ß= -0.34) and motivation (0/001> p, ß= -0.33) were the strongest predictors of these behaviors. Conclusions: This study showed that protection motivation theory is efficient in predicting preventive behaviors of skin cancer and promoting interventions of the behaviors can be designed and implemented by this theory. It is also necessary to perform proper planning in promoting these behaviors in people with low per capita income. Background The first and second common cancer in Iranian men and women is skin cancer, respectively [1] . Skin cancer, in which epidermal layer of the skin grows abnormally, is classified into melanoma and nonmelanoma. Skin cancer has an increasing trend and 2-3 million people are affected globally [2, 3] . The main environmental risk factor for skin