KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE REGARDING FOOD AND PERSONAL HYGIENE AMONG RESTAURANT FOOD HANDLERS IN BAUCHI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA BAUCHI STATE

Abstract

The  main  purpose  of  the  study  was  to  determine  the  knowledge,  attitude  and  practice regarding  food  and  personal  hygiene  among  restaurant  food  handlers  in  Bauchi  L.G.A., Bauchi State, Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, eighteen research questions were formulated and nine null hypotheses postulated and tested for significance at .05 level. Quantitative data were collected from 185 food handlers using knowledge, attitude and practice regarding food and  personal  hygiene  questionnaire.  The  data  collected  were  analyzed  using  frequency distribution  percentages  and  means  to  answer  the  research  questions  while  Chi-Square, ANOVA and t-Test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study showed that the food  handlers  had  very high  knowledge  of food and personal  hygiene  but possessed negative attitude regarding food and personal hygiene. The findings further indicated that the food handlers  practice  food and personal  hygiene occationally.  Restaurant  food handlers’ knowledge  of  personal,food  and  restaurant  hygiene  was  not  dependent  on their  level of eduation,there  is no  significant  difference  in the responses  of food  handlers’  knowledge regarding personal,food and restaurant hygiene according to age and there is no significant difference  in  the  responses  of  food  handlers’knowledge  of  personal,food  and  restaurant hygiene based on location. Level of education had no significant influence on food handlers’ attitude  regarding  food  and  personal  hygiene,  age  had  no  significant  difference  in  the responses of food handlers attitude regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene and there is no significant defference in the responses of food handlers’attitude regarding personal,food and  restaurant  hygiene   based  on  location.Restaurant   food  handlers’practices   regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene was not dependent on their level of education,there is no significant difference in the responses of food handlers’practices regarding personal,food and restaurant hygiene according to age and there is no significant difference in the responses of food handlers’practices regarding personal,food and restaurant hygiene based on location in Bauchi Local Government Area of Bauchi State. It was recommended, among others, that there  was  need  to  develop  a  more  effective  means  of  imparting  social  mobilization, sensitization to food handlers and the entire community on the needs and advantages of food and personal hygiene education to a great extent.

Background to the Study

CHAPTER ONE Introduction

These past decades have witnessed the emergence of the trend of eating away from home. Many consumers  eat out in restaurants,  canteens,  fast food outlets and  street food vendors due to change of lifestyles. However, the high number of people eating out causes the emergence  of food  -borne  illnesses  arising  from unhygienic  preparation  and  lack of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards food and personal hygiene among restaurant food handlers.

Hygiene refers to practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread  of diseases (Araoye, 2009). It involves regular washing of the body, washing one’s  clothing, washing the hair, brushing the teeth, and caring for the gums (Ilika & Obionu, 2009). Food handlers are particularly vulnerable to the neglect of basic personal hygiene (Postma  et al,

2008;  Oduntain;  2008;  Enahoro  and  Orak,  2007)  .Personal  hygiene,  according  to  WHO (2006), are practices performed by individual to care for his/her personal health and well- being, through cleanliness.The  WHO added that motivation for personal  hygiene practices include  reduction  of  personal  illiness,  optimal  health  and  sense  of  well-being,  social acceptance and prevention of spread of illness to others.

Harrison (2010) defined personal hygiene practices in relation to food,  as proper food management and cooking to prevent food contamination.  This, according to him  is called food hygiene.Food hygiene, according to Flizpatrick and Kappos (2009), are those measures that   aim   at   preventing   the   contamination   of   food   processing   namely,   collection, preparation,transportation,   storage  and  sale.Food  hygiene  refers  to  the  conditions  and practices  that  preserve  the  quality  of  food  to  prevent   contamination  and  food  borne illnesses.It includes the production,processing, preparation and handling of food to ensure the safety of food.

The  term  food  safety  is  increasingly  being  used  in  place  of  food  hygiene  and encompasses a whole range of issues that must be addressed for the purpose of ensuring the safety of prepared food. Food hygiene probably puts too much emphasis on cleanliness but food safety requires much more than a clean  environment or premises (Food Hygiene and Safety). The high incidence of food borne illnesses has led to an increase in global concern about food hygiene (Van, 2007). Several food borne diseases outbreaks have been reported to be associated with poor personal hygiene of people handling foodstuffs.

Food borne  diseases  are increasing  in both developed  and developing  countries. Diarrheal diseases, mostly caused by food borne microbial pathogens, are leading causes of illnesses  and  deaths  in the developing  countries,  killing  an  estimated  1.9 million  people annually at the global level (Schlundt, 2004).

An estimated  76 million food borne illnesses occur annually in the United  States. These food borne illnesses result in estimated 325,000 hospitalization and 5000 deaths every year in the United States. The cost of the most common food borne illnesses in the United States is estimated at $6.5-$34.9 billion annually (Mead, 2004). In the past few decades, the epidemiology of food borne diseases has changed with several emerging pathogens. Some of them may pose a low risk to most individuals, but may be life threatening to others (Maizun, Mohd & Zain, 2003).

Between  1999  and 2002,  an average  of 1329  food borne diseases  outbreaks  were reported to the Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) each year. Approximately

52% of these were attributed to service establishments or restaurants (Jones, 2006; Lynch,

2006). During the same period, the Oregon Public Health Division reported 62 food borne outbreaks or approximately 5% of the national total (Emilo & DeBess, 2009). Another study conducted in Malaysia also showed that approximately 10-20% of food- borne outbreaks are due to contamination by the food handlers (Zain, 2002).

Food contamination  may occur at any point during its journey through  production, processing, distribution, and preparation (Green, 2005; Honnessay, 2004).  The risk of food getting contaminated depends largely on the health status of the food handlers, their personal hygiene, knowledge and practice of food hygiene (Mead and Slutsker, 2004). Infection can also be acquired through contaminated unwashed fingers, insects,  circulation of bank notes and by wind during dry conditions (Isara, 2009). Contamination of food with eggs and cysts especially those sold by hawkers may also serve as a source of infection to consumers of such items (Umeche, 2009). Therefore, food handlers, i.e, any person who handles food, regardless of whether he actually prepares or serves it, play an important role in the transmission and, ultimately, prevention of food borne diseases (Isara, 2009).

Food handler, according to WHO (2008), is a person in the food trade or  someone

professionally associated with it including an inspector who, in his routine work, comes into direct contact with food in the cause of its production, processing, packaging or distribution. South African National Health Regulation (2009) defines a food handler as anyone who is engaged in any of the processes which make up or are ancillary to  food  processing, even though such a person might not handle food directly. Food  handlers refer to anyone who

directly prepares, cooks, stores, or serves food and drinks. For the purpose of this study, food handlers  refer  only to  those  who  are  cooks,  servers,  cash  collectors,  plate  washers  and cleaners in the restaurant.

Hornby (2008) described restaurant as places where meals can be bought and eaten. Brook (2008) referred to restaurant as public commercial food eating establishment. Shaw (2003) declared that restaurants are commercial public eating places, away from home, and therefore should be planned and operated to achieve the highest degree of hygiene in order to ensure the safety of the consumers as clients. From the foregoing definitions, restaurant as used in this study are food establishments  away from home where food is consumed  on commercial basis.

There  are eighty one restaurants  in both  urban and  rural areas of Bauchi  Local Government Area, some of these restaurants offer only eating facilities while  others offer temporary residential facilities. In addition, it is common knowledge that there are also illegal or unregistered restaurants or public eating places characterized by improvised or substandard structures  scattered  all  over  the  urban  areas.  Some  operate  in  temporary  or  improvised structures attached to buildings and some even operate in mobile stands. All the restaurants, including  those  with  improvised  or  substandard  structures  scattered  all  over  the  local government, both registered and unregistered will be used for this study. The restaurant shall permit good hygiene practices, including protection against harmful cross-contamination  or food-borne diseases.

Good hygiene practices encouraged through health education has been reported to be associated  with  low  prevalence  of  communicable  diseases  in  restaurant  (Long-Shan  et al,2003). Good hygiene practices, therefore, plays and important role in preventing spread of respiratory infection,  helminthiasis,  skin infection,  food-borne  disease  and spread  of new pathogens  as  in  epidemics  (Oduntan,2003).  Understanding  the  knowledge,  attitude  and practices related to food and personal hygiene among target population is needed to plan and design  behavioural  interventions.  According  to  this  researcher,  when  food  and  personal hygiene knowledge, attitude and practice are promoted, they go a long way to prevent food poisoning.  Consequently,  knowledge,  attitude  and practice  of food  and personal  hygiene among food handlers at an early stage can help in preventing further deterioration of general health (Nwobodo, 2007).

Adequate knowledge,  positive attitude and correct personal hygiene practices  have been identified by WHO (2004) as the major and most important measures in the prevention of food-borne diseases. Knowledge, according to Carter and Winifred (2005), is accumulated

facts, truth, principles and information to which the human mind has access. Comfort (2005) further described knowledge as the sum of our conceptions, views and predispositions which have been established and tasted. Food and personal hygiene knowledge in the context of this study refers  to  understanding  or  learning  that  one  has  acquired  as  regards  to  food  and personal hygiene in the restaurant. The present study was set to investigate these dimensions of food and personal hygiene among restaurant food handlers in Bauchi State.

Moronkola and Okanlawon (2003) opined that knowledge helps to create a change in attitude  and then proper practice  towards health,  which in this case is  personal  hygiene. Knowledge  in  the  present  study  refers  to  understanding  which  the  food  handlers  have acquired with regard to food and personal hygiene. Opera (2003)  declared that knowledge and attitude must be present for a desired behavioral change to take place.

Attitude does not have a universally acceptable definition. Murdary (2003)  viewed attitude  as a feeling tone directed  towards a person,  object  or idea. Dighton  (2001)  also viewed attitude as a predisposition to classify objects and events, and to reach to them with some degree of evaluative consistency. Kerlinger (2002) perceived attitude as an organized predisposition to think, feel, perceive and behave towards a referent or cognitive object. In his  well-known  perspective,  Bolan  (2001)  stated  that  attitudes  about  food  and  personal hygiene help to determine what an individual does in a given situation.

Attitude in the context of the present study is that which predisposes food handlers to respond either positively or negatively towards food and personal hygiene practice.. On the other hand, practice  refers to a way of doing something  regularly (Hornby,  2001). With regard  to  the  present  study,  practice  refers  to  the  most  common  actions  taken  by food handlers in order to enhance their positive food handling practices.

There are demographic  factors that are associated  with food and personal  hygiene knowledge,   attitude   and  practice.   Arowojolu   (2001)   identified   age,   sex,   occupation, educational status and location as the factors that affect food and personal hygiene. In their own  view,  Nuamah  and  Annah  (2008)  identified  age  as  a  factor,   while  Arowojolu, Aderinokun,   and   Arowajolu   (2008)   listed   age,   occupation   and   educational   status. Furthermore,  Al-Shadan  (2005)  identified  gender,  age and  number of children as factors affecting food and personal hygiene while Ettinger and  Mulligan (2008) observed  genetic dispositions, lifestyle, socialization, environment, culture, psychology, education, social life, economy, diet and age all influence one’s personal hygiene. In this study, age, location and educational  status will be investigated  to determine  whether  and  how they influence  the

knowledge,  attitude  and  practice  of  food  and  personal  hygiene  among  restaurant  food handlers in Bauchi Local Government Area of Bauchi State, hence the need for this study.

Bauchi LGA is located at the southern part of Bauchi State and made up of twenty (20) political wards with population of 316,173  (National Population  Census,  2006). The local government also has 74 health facilities including public and private hospitals and 81 registered restaurants.

Statement of the Problem

An ideal food  and personal  hygiene  has been extolled  as a potent  instrument  for ensuring wholesome and palatable food by the application of sanitary measures designed to keep food clean through its production,processing,distribution  and preparation to ensure that it is safe and free from  contamination.The risk of food getting contaminated depends largerly on the health status of the food handlers,their personal   hygiene (Mead,2009). Infection can also  be acquired  through  contaminated  unwashed  fingers,touching  raw food,touching  the hair,face,or body:sneezing,coughing  or using a  tissue, smoking, eating or chewing gum or tobacco:handling chemical:touching clothing or aprons and touching any thing else that may contaminate hands (National Restaurant Association Education Foundation[NRAEF],2008)

Evidence by WHO (2006) revealed that there is increasing prevalence of food-borne

illnesses  in developing countries.  WHO reported  that in the year 2000 alone, 2.1  million people died of diarrhoea diseases. A great proportion of these cases, the report indicated, can be attributed to contamination of food and drinking water. Food prepared at restaurants under unhygienic conditions has been identified as a major source of food poisoning.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, Idowa and Rowland (2006) conducted a study on oral fecal parasite and personal hygiene of food handlers in Abeakuta. The stool sample was collected from sampled restaurant food handlers and taken to the laboratory to rule out the parasite. Questionnaire was also used. The result showed high prevalence of fecal orally transmissible parasites. Cases of multiple infections  were recorded  in 67 food  handlers  with diarrhoea, typhoid  fever,  hepatitis  A,  worm  infestation,  and  indicative  of  a  high  level  of  fecal contamination of the environment and low level of sanitation.

In Bauchi State, the State Ministry of health, Disease  Surveillance  and  Notification

Office (DSNO  2010) reported  the outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting,  resulting in  11,742 hospitalization and 193 deaths. Much as the source of the outbreak was not established, these figures call for studies to confirm what really obtains in each situation.

Such  studies  actually  have  been  conducted  on  knowledge,  attitude  and   practice regarding  food  and  personal  hygiene  among  food  handlers  in  many  parts  of  the  world

including  Nigeria.  Incidentally,   none  of  such  studies,  to  the  best  knowledge  of   the investigator, has been conducted in Bauchi Local Government Area. As a result of that, the need arose to study knowledge, attitude and practice regarding food and  personal hygiene among restaurant food handlers in Bauchi Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice  of

food and personal  hygiene  among  restaurant  food  handlers  in Bauchi Local  Government

Area, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain:

1.        food handlers’ level of knowledge regarding personal hygiene;

2.        food handlers’ level of knowledge regarding food hygiene;

3.        food handlers’ level of knowledge regarding hygiene of their restaurants;

4.        attitude of food handlers towards personal hygiene;

5.        attitude of food handlers towards food hygiene;

6.        attitude of food handlers towards hygiene of their restaurants;

7.        practices of personal hygiene by food handlers ;

8.        practices of food hygiene by food handlers;

9.        practices of food handlers regarding hygiene of restaurants;

10.      influence of level of education on food handlers’ knowledge of   personal,food  and restaurant hygiene;

11.      influence of food handlers’ attitude of personal, food and restaurant hygiene;

12.      influence of level of education on food handlers’practices  towards  personal,food and restaurant hygiene;

13.      influence  of  age  on  food  handlers’  knowledge  of  personal,  food  and  restaurant hygiene;

14.      influence  of age on food  handlers’  attitude  towards personal,  food  and  restaurant hygiene;

15.      influence of age on food handlers practices of personal,food and restaurant hygiene;

16.      influence of location on food handlers’ knowledge of personal, food and  restaurant hygiene;

17.      influence of location on food handlers’ attitude towards personal, food and restaurant hygiene;

18.      influence  of location  on food  handlers’  practices  of personal,  food  and  restaurant hygiene ;

Research Questions

The following research questions have been posed to guide the study:

1.        What is the food handler’s level of knowledge regarding personal hygiene?

2.        What is the food handler’s level of knowledge regarding food hygiene?

3.        What  is  the  food  handlers’  level  of  knowledge  regarding  the  hygiene  of  their restaurants?

4.        What is the attitude of food handlers toward personal hygiene?

5.        What is the attitude of food handlers toward food hygiene?

6.        What is the attitude of food handlers toward hygiene of their restaurants?

7.        What is the extent of food handlers’ practice of personal hygiene?

8.        What is the extent of food handlers’ practice regarding food hygiene?

9.        What  is  the  extent  of  food  handlers’  practice  regarding  the  hygiene  of  their restaurants?

10.      What  is  the  food  handlers’  knowledge  of  personal,  food  and  restaurant  hygiene according to level of education?

11.      What is the   food handlers’ attitude towards   personal,food  and restaurant  hygiene according to level of education?

12.      What  is  the    food  handlers’  practice  of    personal,food  and  restaurant  hygiene according to level of education?

13.      What  is  the    food  handlers’  knowledge  of  personal,food  and  restaurant  hygiene according to age?

14.      What is the   food handlers’ attitude towards   personal,food  and restaurant  hygiene according to age?

15.      What is the  food handlers’ personal, food and restaurant hygiene practices according to age?

16.      What  is  the  food  handlers’  knowledge  of  personal,  food  and  restaurant  hygiene according to location?

17.      What is the   food handlers’ attitude towards   personal,food  and restaurant  hygiene according to location?

18.      What is the  food handlers’ personal, food and restaurant hygiene practices according to location?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses are formulated to guide the study. They will be tested at .05 level of significance;

1.        Restaurant  food  handlers’  knowledge  of personal,  food  and  restaurant  hygiene  is independent on their level of education .

2.        Restaurant food handlers’ attitude regarding personal, food and restaurant  hygiene is independent on their level.

3.        Restaurant food handlers’ practices regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene is independent on their level of education.

4.        There  is  no  significant  difference  between  the  mean  responses  of food  handlers’

knowledge regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene according to age.

5.        There  is no significant  difference  between the mean responses of   food  handlers’

attitude regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene according to age.

6.        There  is  no  significant  difference  between  the  mean  responses  of food  handlers’

practice regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene according to age.

7.        There  is no significant  difference  between the mean responses of   food  handlers’

knowledge regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene based on location.

8.        There  is  no  significant  difference  between  the  mean  responses  of food  handlers’

attitude towards personal, food and restaurant hygiene based on location .

9.        There is no significant difference in the mean responses of  food handlers’ practice regarding personal, food and restaurant hygiene based on location .

Significance of the Study

The findings from this study will be of immense benefit to restaurant food handlers in particular, and health workers and wider public in general. Specifically, data to be generated by determining the level of knowledge possessed by the food handlers  regarding personal hygiene may help in exposing the knowledge which the food handlers possess in the area of personal hygiene. The data to be generated regarding their knowledge of food hygiene may be beneficial to the food handlers in Bauchi LGA and Health workers in the area. The data will highlight the food handlers’ level of knowledge in this area, thus may help the health workers to identify knowledge gaps to be filled in the course of their instruction. On the other hand, knowing the food handlers’ level of knowledge on hygiene of restaurant will help all the stakeholders in the field of health services to identify what remains to be taught.

The study will also provide results on the knowledge regarding food hygiene among food handlers. Results of the study are likely to help health educators, nurses and midwives in counseling mothers on the appropriate ways of food handling. The results of the study will also  be of benefit  to  health  policymakers  since  they will  provide  the  basis upon  which existing programs and health strategies may be re-examined and evaluated.

Information to be generated on the attitude of food handlers towards their personal hygiene will be beneficial to Bauchi LGA food handlers because it will help them to know the proper attitude to exhibit towards personal hygiene. Data to be generated on the attitude of  food  handlers  towards  food  hygiene  will  be  beneficial  to  the  food  handlers  because knowing how people feel about individuals with poor food- handling attitude will motivate food handlers to improve on their attitude towards food handling.

Furthermore, data to be generated on the attitude of food handlers toward personal and food  hygiene  will help  health care providers  determine  the  need  and  techniques  for changing the food handler’s proper practice. Knowing how the food  handlers take care of their food handling will expose whether they are doing the right thing or not. This may be beneficial to health- care delivery planners who may need to identify and encourage sound practices.

Beyong the foregoing, data to be generated on the practice of food handlers on food and personal  hygiene  may  likely  sensitize  the  agencies  responsible  for  food  preservation  in Bauchi State to encourage them to identify sound practices while engineering changes in the wholesome  practices  of  the  food  handlers  towards  production,  collection,  processing, distribution, storage and sale. The data concerning this study may help to enrich the pool of data on the subject matter, such data may also be beneficial to both the health and education ministries  in  Bauchi  State,  and  may  form  the  basis  for  future  policy  formulation  and modification

The study on investigation will influence the food handlers’ level of education, age, and location on their knowledge, attitude and practice of personal and food hygiene. The  study will provide  results that will reveal the influences of level of education  on  the food and personal hygiene among food handlers in Bauchi Local Government Area. The result of the study may give a clue as to the learning needs of these categories of food handlers. It may also guide the educators, environmental health officers, health programmers and curriculum planners in planning and execution of health education programs that will motivate such food handlers to adopt desirable practices.

The  study also  will  provide  data  on the  influences  of age  and  location  of  food

handlers in Bauchi Local Government Area, the results on location may be useful to health care providers and may motivate them to design health education programs that may enable the rural and urban food handlers to be fit for food handling. The information may also help both federal and state ministries  of health on the  appropriate  ways of distributing  health services and facilities in such a way that older  and younger food handlers in the rural and

urban settings may equally be addressed and counseled. The result may also help in effective delivery of social mobilization activities in the study area.

Generally, the results may serve as a source of reference for training health personnel in the community. Food handlers, students and NGOs may find the results of the study useful as they quest for avenues and strategies of improvement for hygienic food handling. Finally, the result of the study will help to verify the relevance of some knowledge, attitude and practice theories to personal and food hygiene knowledge, attitude and practices.

Scope of the Study

The study was delimited to restaurant food handlers in Bauchi L.G.A, Bauchi State. The  Local  Government  was  made  up  of  twenty  (20)  political  wards,  namely;  Birshi, Dan’Dango,  Galambi,  Dan’amar  ‘A’  Gwaskwaram,  Dan’amar  ‘B’,  Kangire,    Kundum, Durum,  Dan’Iya,  Liman  Katagum,  Dankande,  Tirwun,  Mun-Mun-Sal,  Yamrat,  Dawaki, Hardo, Zungur,  Makama ‘A’ Makama ‘B’ and Miri.

The study will investigate the level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding food and personal hygiene among restaurant food handlers in    Bauchi Local Government Area. The study also ascertained the food handlers’knowledge, attitude and practice regarding food and personal hygiene based on level of education, age, and location.

₦5,000.00 – DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT Added to cart

---

---

---

---

---

Related Project Topics :