The Role of Educational Intervention in Changing Knowledge and Attitudes of Rural Homemakers in Relation to Food Safety and Hygiene: A Case Study: Iran (2016) Publisher



Safari Y¹ ; Sharafie K¹ ; Karimaei M^{3, 4} ; Asadi F² ; Ghayebzadeh M² ; Motlagh ZJ² ; Mirzaei N⁵ ; Sharafi H²
Source: Annals of Tropical Medicine and Public Health Published:2017

Abstract

Background: Food hygiene is one of the fundamental and essential issues in environmental health that should be followed to prevent food-borne illnesses. Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed at determining the role of educational intervention in changing knowledge and attitudes of rural homemakers in the city of Bisotun toward food hygiene. Materials and Methods: The first step to conduct the study was designing a survey questionnaire. We selected rural homemakers of the villages of Bisotun as target population for the study and a used random sampling for selecting a hundred of them. All achieved data were analyzed by SPSS and evaluated using independent t-test and ANOVA at a significance level of = 0.05. Results: There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in knowledge of the studied rural homemakers depending on their marital status, use of media, education, and age. The results showed that the educational intervention elevated their knowledge. Besides, there was also a significant difference (P < 0.05) based on different demographic variables in attitudes of the studied rural homemakers toward food hygiene. Conclusion: From the results, it can be concluded that the regional health workers failed to follow guidelines for improving the situation because of the multiplicity and diversity of their duties. It seems, therefore, that there is a need to use periodical educations (every 6 months) intending to teach important subjects such as food hygiene to rural homemakers and even health workers by experienced and highly educated food hygiene professionals, considering parameters including gender, age, and education of the individuals.