Background: Food hygiene encompasses all conditions and measures necessary to ensure safety and suitability of food at all stages of the chain of food production as food has direct influence on health. Food handlers have been found to play prominent roles in the transmission of foodborne diseases and can pose a significant public health problem.
Objective: To know the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of food safety among women of Khaza bazar, the urban field practice area of the KBN Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the women of Khaza bazar for 3 months from April to June 2015. By using simple random sampling techniques, a convenient sample of 300 respondents was selected for the study. A predesigned and pretested pro forma was used to collect the demographic information and the World Health Organization questionnaire was used to collect information of KAP of food safety. Statistical analysis was done in terms of mean scores, factor analysis, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation test.
Result: In this study, the positive association was reported between attitude and literacy (p < 0.5). The mean (standard deviation) scores of KAP were 8.65 (1.24), 16.03 (1.75), and 30.87 (4.22), respectively. All the respondents had consistently good knowledge (58.3%), attitude (81.7%), and practice (79.0%). Pearson correlation test showed that there were correlations between the mean scores of knowledge and attitude (r = 0.176; p = 0.002) and knowledge and practice (r = 0.608; p = 0.000) and between the mean scores of attitude and practice (r = 0.190; p = 0.001). The findings suggested that there were positive relationships between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice, and also attitude and practice (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: KAP of food safety among women in Khaza bazar area was found good and also a positive association between the individual KAP variables suggests that the knowledge regarding food safety is increased by training on measures of safety and its importance in the transmission of the disease, which increases attitude and practice.
Key words: Food safety, knowledge, attitude, practices, women
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