Knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice of food poisoning among postgraduate students at selected public universities in 2020-2021

• Main Author: Mshelia, Arhyel Buba
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Foodborne Diseases
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/103903/1/MSHELIA%20DR%20ARHYEL%20BUBA%20-%20IR.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/103903/

Objective: This study aims to determine knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice of food poisoning and its factors among postgraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among selected 212 respondents who were selected through simple random sampling. The selection was made through an online random number generator from a list provided by the Graduate School Office. A validated and reliable questionnaire was used. Results: Of the 212 respondents, the majority were male (59.0%), aged less than 35 years old (77.4%), non-Malaysian (52.8%), single (58.0%), first-degree-holders (98.6%), not working (53.8%), and received an average monthly income of less than RM3,264 (82.1%). A larger number of the respondents (67.0%) are aware of food poisoning outbreak. And the source of their information of the food poisoning outbreak was television (21.69%), the internet (21.23%), newspaper (8.02%), online journals (7.55%), friends (3.30%), Facebook (1.89%), community (0.5%), nurse (0.5%), drinking raw milk for the second time (0.5%), information from parents (0.5%), relatives (0.5%), restaurant (0.5%), and radio (0.5%). A greater number of the respondents (55.7%) had a previous history of food poisoning illness. However, a greater portion of the respondents (53.8%) who had a previous history of food poisoning illness did not correctly detect or confirm the causes of their food poisoning illness, which should be either microbial or non-microbial causes. The majority of the respondents had poor knowledge (82.5%), an acceptable attitude (68.9%), and good preventive practice (55.7%) regarding food poisoning. There was a significant association between citizen, marital status, awareness of food poisoning outbreak, and previous history of food poisoning illness with knowledge of food poisoning (p<0.05). There was a significant association between gender and awareness of food poisoning outbreak with attitude towards food poisoning (p<0.05). There was also a significant association between attitude and preventive practice towards food poisoning (p<0.05). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that those who have married (AOR 2.342, 95% CI 1.051 - 5.220, p=0.037), not aware of food poisoning outbreak (AOR 2.736, 95% CI 1.062 - 7.049, p=0.037), and had no previous history of food poisoning illness (AOR 2.245, 95% CI 1.004 - 5.017, p=0.049) are predictors for good knowledge. Being male respondents (AOR 2.347, 95% CI 1.237 - 4.451, p=0.009) and not aware of food poisoning outbreak (AOR 2.164, 95% CI 1.168 - 4.010, p=0.014) are predictors for acceptable attitude. Conclusion: Documentation of the identified poor level of knowledge and factors affecting the level of knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice provides essential information on the baseline indicators towards the risk of food poisoning among the respondents. A relevant interventional program is recommended to tackle the problem of poor knowledge of food poisoning; areas of focus should be viral causes of food poisoning, low-risks foods, high-risk foods, and complications or effects of food poisoning. Gender, citizen, marital status, awareness of food poisoning outbreak, and the previous history of food poisoning illness were identified factors that had significantly affected the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of food poisoning. Therefore, it is recommended that when providing education on knowledge, attitude, and practice, there is the need to emphasize on the female gender, non-Malaysian, those who have not married, aware of food poisoning outbreak, and had a previous history of food poisoning illness. A relevant interventional program is recommended to intervene in the respondents' unacceptable attitude towards food poisoning. The focus domain should be the attitude of food handlers smoking during food preparation and handling. A relevant interventional program is also recommended to intervene in the poor preventive practice of food poisoning among the respondents; the area of focus should be the preventive practice of rejecting restaurants where food handlers do not wear gloves and head coverings when handling food. It will prevent the potential risks of food poisoning outbreak among them.