Knowledge, attitudes and practices on food hygiene and safety among mothers and caretakers of children under five years in Division A, Entebbe Municipality

Abstract

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that foodborne and waterborne diseases together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children and about 70% from developing countries. Lack of food safety knowledge and inappropriate food handling practices by food handlers are leading causes of foodborne diseases in developing countries. Food handlers play an important role in ensuring food safety along the food chain. Objective: To assess the level of food safety and hygiene knowledge, attitude and practices among Mothers and caretakers of children under five years in division A, Entebbe municipality so as to inform interventions to prevent occurrences of diarrheal diseases. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study involving collection of quantitative data. Data was collected from 174 mothers and caretakers of the children under five years through conducting face to face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was collected by using EPICOLLECT on smartphones and tablets and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Proportions, measures of central tendency and measures of variation were used to describe the study results. Results: Majority of the respondents were female (83.0%). Over half (51.2%) of the participants had attained secondary level of education as their highest level of education. Overall knowledge and attitude towards food safety were satisfactory at (83.0% and 81.6% respectively) but self-reported practice level was (58.6%).