Nutritional Status of U5 Children and Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Mothers on Food Safety among Outpatient Health Care Service Seekers at Cure Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study examines the food security status, malnutrition, and food safety knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of mothers having outpatient children in Cure Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study had been carried out using a semi-structured questionnaire to collect the needed data from a total of 210 participants. A SPSS (a software package) was used for interactiv, statistical analysis. The results showed that the prevalence of undernutrition of the children: about 45.1% of them were stunted, 50.3% underweight and 16.2% were found to be wasting. The knowledge of food handling of mothers had been described as satisfactory: separate storage of cooked and raw food (53.74%) while 15.86% lacked awareness of proper food handling. The food safety attitudes level of mothers' food handling was adequate (48%) in terms of risks if eating spoiled food, keeping hot/cold, preventing food contamination, and reheating while ready to serve though 19% lacking. The participants had positive attitudes toward food hygiene, 84% of them employed the use of safe food handling practices such as properly washing using detergents or preserving at the right temperature. The attitude of most mothers (89%) is considered good about the proper washing and preventing of food poisoning and other diseases. Despite 11% of respondents, did not know proper food handling and cleaning procedures. The accessibility of food was assessed and about 35.3% of the investigated households were found to have timely access to adequate quantity of food supply, 46.4% suffer different food insecurity of varying severity levels, and about 18.3% of the investigated respondents reported to be severely food insecure. Overall, the findings estimated that the level of KAP of respondents was at an acceptable level. However, there is a need to increase the food safety knowledge, nutrition, and education among the mothers which may improve the under nutrition of children and food safety.
Description
Keywords
Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Mothers, Nutrition, Food Hygiene.