TITLE:
Food Hygiene Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of the Food Handlers in the Military Hospitals
AUTHORS:
Labib Sharif, Mohammad M. Obaidat, Mohammad-Raed Al-Dalalah
KEYWORDS:
Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; Food Handlers; Jordan
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.4 No.3,
March
19,
2013
ABSTRACT: Improper practices and lack of knowledge by food handlers are contributing factors for the spread of foodborne outbreaks. This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice of food handlers in military hospitals in Jordan. A Self completed questionnaire was answered by 200 employees; 150 military employees and 50 civilian employees in 7 Jordanian military hospitals selected randomly one from the capital Amman and two from the three provinces. The results showed that the means of the percentage scores for the knowledge, attitude, practice, were 84.82, 88.88, 89.43, respectively and the overall knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP) mean percentage score was 87.88. A significant difference (P 0.05) in these values was observed between the military and civilian employee. The mean percentage scores for knowledge, attitude and practice were 88.5, 93.2, and 91.4, respectively for military employee compared to those for civilian employee of 73.7, 75.8, and 83.5, respectively. A significant difference for the overall (KAP) mean percentage score was also observed between gender, education and specific occupation of the food handler. Female KAP percentage mean score was 90.0 and that for males was 86.6; The college or university educations employee had a mean score of 91.6 while the elementary school education employee had a mean score of 79.7; The nutritionists and cooks had statistically similar means of 91.6 but these occupations significantly differ from the waiters 84.4 and cleaners 80.2.