Mogessie Ashenafi (Professor)Hiwot Disassa2024-06-032024-06-032021-10https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/3077This 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.enKnowledgeAttitudePracticeMothersNutritionFood Hygiene.Thesis