Employees’ knowledge, attitude and practice of food additives; impacts of an educational intervention

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1199-1212
Author(s):  
Amir Reza Moravejolahkami ◽  
Zahra Esfandiari ◽  
Hadiseh Ebdali ◽  
Marjan Ganjali Dashti ◽  
Akbar Hassanzadeh ◽  
...  

Purpose Understanding consumers’ food safety practices are helpful in reducing foodborne illnesses. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of education on knowledge, attitude and practices toward food additives. Design/methodology/approach This interventional study was performed by random sampling of 826 employees in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from January 2018 to March 2019. The knowledge, attitude and practices of the employees toward food additives were assessed by a self-administered and structured questionnaire. Two-month education was conducted visually by using pamphlets, posters and leaflets. Descriptive statistics and paired t-test were done by SPSS24 at significant levels of p < 0.05. Findings The results showed that the respondents were very concerned about preservatives, colorants, and artificial sweeteners in foods. Before the education, the percentages collected for the knowledge, attitude and practice were 79.0, 48.9 and 46.7, respectively. Overall, knowledge scores were improved from 79.0 to 88.9 per cent when the education was offered. Safety attitude scores significantly increased, with a 50 per cent difference between the pre and post values. A significant difference was observed in the percentage of knowledge, attitude and practice of the employers before and after education (p < 0.05). Almost half of the respondents chose leaflets and pamphlets as a preferable tool for learning. Originality/value Education may be needed for improving knowledge and attitude about food additives. It also helped the respondents to select healthier food. This study suggests more communication programs regarding food safety issues.

2022 ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Ungku Fatimah Ungku Zainal Abidin ◽  
Maimunah Sanny ◽  
Nur Hanani Zainal Abedin

Polystyrene is commonly used on a daily basis for the packaging of takeaways as if people assume that it is safe. Although studies show the migration of styrene into food could cause adverse health impacts such as cancer, neurotoxicity, and hormone-related problems, less is known about public awareness of its risk. This chapter presents a study conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of polystyrene food packaging usage among food operators (i.e., hawkers, restaurants, and night market). Data were collected using self-administered to survey 115 food operators. Results show that the food operators have a moderate knowledge and attitude in polystyrene usage. Their practice in polystyrene usage is still poor. Food operators from restaurants had the highest level of KAP compared to hawker and night markets. The finding could provide some guides in developing interventions to educate food operators about food safety issues related to polystyrene.


Food Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 1802-1814
Author(s):  
T.T.A. Ngoc ◽  
N.T.M. Hang ◽  
D.K. Thanh ◽  
L.V. Hoa

Street foods have become much more popular in Vietnam. However, the information on the safety of street food sold in Vietnam and food knowledge safety as well as awareness of both Vietnamese vendors and consumers is very limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice in food safety of street food consumers and vendors who volunteered to participate in the study in Can Tho city, Vietnam. This study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, 838 food consumers and 598 food handlers were interviewed via a questionnaire to assess their food safety knowledge and attitude. The second part focused on the observation of the food handling practice of the vendors by means of a checklist. Results indicated that consumers and vendors generally exhibited average food safety knowledge and attitude levels. The consumers and vendors were determined to have higher levels of food safety attitude than knowledge, whilst trained consumers and vendors had better food safety knowledge and attitude compared to untrained consumers and vendors. The observation study showed that the majority of the vendors had unhygienic practice i.e. handled food with bare hands (84.5%), handled money while serving food (92.3%) and without washing hands after handling money (93.3%), etc. These results justify the need for training the vendors about food safety knowledge and practice and further additional studies of street foods and their potential risk of foodborne illness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
LOKESH KUMAR S ◽  
ZAMEERA NAIK ◽  
ARUN PANWAR ◽  
SRIDHAR M ◽  
VAISHALI KELUSKAR ◽  
...  

Background: COVID-19 vaccine is the mighty weapon opted by all the countries across the globe in an attempt to eradicate the fatal COVID-19 pandemic. The myths on the COVID-19 vaccine are spreading widely, causing a hindrance to this noble preventive measure. The prevalence of such myths among the healthcare professionals may be toxic and deadly. Aim & Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the healthcare professionals regarding the myths on COVID-19 vaccination and to demystify them. Materials and Methods: An 18-item questionnaire evaluating knowledge, attitude, and practice based on the existing myths on COVID-19 vaccination was circulated through Google Forms among the 412 healthcare professionals of six disciplines belonging to a private University. The responses obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 20 software package. Results: A total of 385 health professionals participated in this study. The majority of them had medium knowledge (165) and positive attitude (273) with the mean knowledge and attitude scores of 3.82 (SD-1.55) out of 6 and 4.3 (SD-1.58) out of 7 respectively. Even though 312 participants got vaccinated, 72 of them failed to receive it. The knowledge scores showed a high statistically significant difference among the participants of different designations (p=0.001), but not with gender, field, and staff with different years of experience (p>0.05). The attitude scores were statistically different among participants of fields and designation (p<0.05) but not among genders (p=0.31) and staff with different years of experience (p=0.87). Knowledge and attitude scores showed a positive linear correlation and a high statistically significant difference (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study recommends more enhanced education programs on COVID-19 vaccination for the health professionals and demands an improved knowledge, attitude, and practice among them to achieve the goal of 100% vaccination so as to completely eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
Pratyusha Chatti ◽  
Vineela Parlapalli ◽  
Siva Kumar Pydi ◽  
Nagarjuna Pottem ◽  
Karishma Janapareddy ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Dental ethics revolves around the extent to which actions within the dental practice promote good and reduce harm.AIM: The study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice among the medical, dental, and nursing college students and faculty Visakhapatnam.MATERIALS AND METHODS:  The 26-item questionnaire, self-administered, semi-structured, was designed to access the student's and faculty's knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the globe of healthcare ethics. With all the exclusion and inclusion criteria, the total sample derived as 1190. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS Software Version 21.0 with the significant p-value at ≤ 0.05. Descriptive statistics, chi-Square test and ANOVA test used to compare the knowledge attitude and practice of dental, medical, and nursing students and faculty.RESULTS: Out of 1,190 participants, 456 participants belonged to medical out of which 239 are females, and 217 are males, 424 participants are from the specialty dental, 248 are females, and 176 are 310 participants belong to nursing in which 230 females and 80 males. The knowledge and attitude of dental college interns and postgraduates showed no significant difference in the Hippocratic oath, Nuremberg code, ICMR guidelines, Helsinki declaration with p-value 0.971, 0.899, 0.506, and 0.768. The knowledge and attitude of medical college interns and postgraduates showed a significant difference in the Hippocratic oath, Nuremberg code, ICMR guidelines with p-values 0.002, 0.040 and 0.011, respectively. The knowledge and attitude of final years showed considerable differences from the third years of nursing. CONCLUSION: The knowledge and attitude of health care ethics are significantly more in medical postgraduates than the medical interns, showed no significant difference in dental interns and graduates, and showed significant differences in nursing students.


F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
M Muzaheed ◽  
Omar S. El-Masry

Background: Continuous evaluation of students and employee’s knowledge and attitude in the clinical laboratory is mandatory to ensure a high level of competency, proper practice and to assess the need for training. This shall be reflected on the quality of laboratory results. Objective: the aim of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of employees and students who belong to the department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences in the standard microbiology laboratory towards the use of laboratory equipment. Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey in which thirty 2nd year students, twenty-six 3rd year students, twenty-four 4th year students in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences department and thirty employees completed a survey comprising 30 questions to assess their knowledge and attitude towards the use of equipment and practice in the microbiology laboratory in order to assess the achievement of past learning outcomes. Results: The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the average scores of all levels students regarding their knowledge, attitude, and practice in the microbiology laboratory. Employees scores were quite poor, as indicated by the lower average results than that of students.  Conclusion: It is concluded that the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students and employees in the microbiology laboratory need to be meticulously monitored and improved using frequent quizzes and continuous education programs to ensure high achievement of learning outcomes and better overall performance in the laboratory.


Author(s):  
Noor Hamzani FARIZAN ◽  
Rosnah SUTAN ◽  
Kulanthayan KC MANI

Background: We aimed to assess the effectiveness of the health educational booklet intervention in improving parents/guardian’s knowledge on prevention of child drowning and, the perception of drowning risk and water safety practice.  Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in year 2017 in Selangor, Malaysia among 719 parents/ guardians of primary school children. The parent/guardians were randomly assigned as the intervention groups and were given a health educational Be-SAFE booklet on drowning prevention and water safety. The pretest was conducted before the intervention and posttest was done one month of intervention. The data collection tool was using a validated questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice for drowning prevention and water safety. Results: There were 719 respondents (response rate of 89.9%) participated at baseline and 53.7% at end line (after the intervention). Significant differences found in knowledge, attitudes and practice on drowning prevention and water safety for the intervention and control groups after the intervention (P<0.001). There was a significant difference in mean scores for knowledge and attitude before and after the intervention, whereas no significant findings noted for practices (P<0.001). Conclusion: Be SAFE booklet contributed to the increase in parents/guardian’s knowledge and attitudes towards drowning prevention and water safety to prevent the risk of child drowning.


F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Muzaheed Muzaheed ◽  
Omar S. El-Masry ◽  
Ali A. Rabaan ◽  
Faisal Alzahrani ◽  
Amer Alomar ◽  
...  

Background: Continuous evaluation of students and employee’s knowledge and attitude in clinical laboratories is mandatory to ensure a high level of competency, proper practice and to assess the need for training, which shall be reflected on the quality of laboratory results. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice in microbiology laboratories among employees (at King Fahd Hospital of the University) and clinical laboratory students (at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University)    Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of 30 2nd year students, 26 3rd year students, 24 4th year students in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences department, and 30 employees. Participants completed a survey comprising 30 questions to assess their knowledge and attitude towards the use of equipment and practice in the microbiology laboratory. Results: The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the average scores of all levels of students regarding their knowledge (p = 0.85, 0.999, and 0.869), attitude (p = 0.883, 0.996, 0.853), and practice (p=0.633, 0.325, 0.858) in the microbiology laboratory. Employees scores (knowledge;5.03±2.646, attitude; 12.03±4.89, and practice; 7.7±6.11) were quite poor, as indicated by the lower average results than that of students (knowledge; 5.65±3.08, attitude; 13.25±5.33, and practice; 13.46±5.7). Conclusions: It is concluded that the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students and employees in the microbiology laboratory needs to be meticulously monitored and improved to ensure high achievement of learning outcomes and better overall performance in the laboratory. This may be achieved through using frequent quizzes and continuous education programs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali ◽  
Ifan Eka Saputra ◽  
Adillida Adillida ◽  
Sri Sofyani ◽  
Iskandar Z Lubis

Objective To compare the knowledge and attitude of working moth-ers (WM) and non-working mothers (NWM) concerning immuniza-tion in children.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on February, 18-23, 2002 at PT. Olagafood Industri, a noodle manufacture in TanjungMorawa, Medan. Subjects were female workers and non-workingwives of male workers who had under-five-year children. Motherswere interviewed using a questionnaire. Sample size for each groupwas 38. Degree of knowledge, attitude, and practice concerningimmunization were classified into good, insufficient, and bad.Results Mothers’ age, educational level, and children’s age werecomparable between the two groups. Ten WM and 8 NWM hadgood knowledge concerning immunization, which did not differ sig-nificantly (p>0.05). Good attitude toward immunization was foundin 25 WM and 12 NWM; it was a statistically significant difference(p<0.05). The practice of immunization showed similar result asthe attitude. The age of mothers had a significant relationship withthe degree of knowledge and practice, but not with attitude.Conclusion Degree of knowledge about immunization betweenWM and NWM are comparable, but differences exist in their atti-tude and performance


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richa Soni ◽  
Kamna Tank ◽  
Nayan Jain

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice about probiotic use among health professionals of Ahmedabad, India. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire was prepared. The questionnaire consisted of 12 close-ended questions related to definition, mechanism of action, safety consideration, health benefits, sources and four questions to assess their attitude and practice about probiotics. Total 267 healthcare professionals were requested to fill the questionnaire. Participants were doctors, medical students, nutritionists, nutrition students, pharmacists and pharmacy students. Findings Results of the survey revealed that most of the participants (93.25 per cent) were aware of the term probiotic, 66.66 per cent professionals were able to answer the right mechanism of action of probiotics. Only 54.68 per cent health professionals knew the health benefits correctly. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of professionals from different fields (p < 0.05). Medical students had highest knowledge scores, whereas nutrition students had lowest knowledge scores. There was no significant difference between knowledge of doctors, pharmacist and nutritionist, but knowledge of medical students was significantly higher than the nutrition students (p < 0.05). Majority of the respondents (85.76 per cent) believed that probiotics are useful for patients. Nearly 50 per cent preferred probiotic food over probiotic drugs. Almost half of them (48.68 per cent) agreed that probiotics can significantly affect the outcome of any therapy. Originality/value Nutritionists and medical students have shown to be more knowledgeable about probiotics than professionals and students of other fields. A positive and significant correlation was found between knowledge and attitude of healthcare providers.


Author(s):  
Ameneh Marzban ◽  
Vahid Rahmanian ◽  
Mehrnoosh Shirdeli ◽  
Fatemeh Jafari ◽  
Mehran Barzegaran

Background: Millions of people worldwide suffer from foodborne diseases every year. So, these diseases are recognized as one of the most common problems worldwide. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of education on knowledge, attitude, and practice of catering staffs about food hygiene and safety in Yazd City, Iran. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 55 employees of catering in Yazd in 2018. The cluster random sampling method was applied to select the participants. Data collection tool was a questionnaire containing four parts of demographic, knowledge, attitude, and practice data. Prior to the intervention, all participants were asked to complete the questionnaire. Later, they were provided with the necessary training for 8 hours in four consecutive weeks. Two months after the intervention, the participants were asked to complete the same questionnaire again. Results: The mean score of before and after the intervention of the participants' knowledge, attitude, and practice were 19.32 ± 3.15, 22.69 ± 4.99, 13.20 ± 1.74, 25.07 ± 3.51, 35.21 ± 2.64 and 17.40 ± 3.48, respectively. prior to and after the intervention, respectively. Based on the findings, the participants' mean score of knowledge, attitude, and practice increased significantly after the educational course (P < 0.05). A significant difference was also observed between the mean scores of practice and work experience before and after the intervention (P < 0.05). Conclusions: According to the results, the educational content should be revised and implementation of the acquired knowledge should be improved in order to achieve the desired level of knowledge, attitude, and practice. In addition, education on food hygiene should be continuous and meticulously planned.


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