Needs assessment and development of intervention to improve food safety behavior among food handlers in selected school canteens in the Klang Valley, Malaysia
In Malaysia, the number of foodborne outbreaks in schools has increased over the years. One of the main contributing factors is the improper handling of food among food handlers. The study aimed to develop an intervention to improve two selected food safety behaviors (handwashing and preventing c...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/98350/1/FSTM%202021%2018%20%20-%20IR.pdf |
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| Summary: | In Malaysia, the number of foodborne outbreaks in schools has increased over the years.
One of the main contributing factors is the improper handling of food among food
handlers. The study aimed to develop an intervention to improve two selected food
safety behaviors (handwashing and preventing contamination of ready-to-eat food)
among food handlers at public school canteens. An-extended Health Action Model
(HAM) was used as a framework to conduct a needs assessment, using a mixed-method
approach comprising of focus group, survey and direct observation. A total of seven
focus group discussions with food handlers (n=64) were first carried out to identify
their perceived barriers and motivation to perform handwashing and preventing food
contamination, which were used as part of the instrument adaptation and validation process. This was followed by a baseline survey (n=211) on food handlers’ knowledge , belief, norm, motivation, habit, and behavioral intention according to the HAM
constructs. The proposed research model extends HAM by incorporating five
dimensions of beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility, severity, barriers, and
benefits) and four dimensions of motivation (law and enforcement, reward, internal
motivation, and resources). Analysis using PLS-SEM (v3.0) revealed that norm and knowledge significantly influenced belief, ultimately affecting food handlers’ intention
to perform handwashing practices (p≤0.001), instead, the intention-behavior
relationship, specifically for contamination prevention, was not supported in this study
(p>0.05). Importance and Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) revealed that selfefficacy
was identified as a priority variable to focus on the development of the
intervention. An educational intervention program focusing on enhancing self-efficacy
was developed and tested using a treatment group (n=31) and a control group (n=30).
The effectiveness of the intervention package was evaluated after a 14-day intervention
period. The intervention program produced a significant increase (p<0.001) in the
behavioral compliance, knowledge and self-efficacy scores. Even though there are
rooms for improvement, the post-intervention handwashing compliance score shows an
increase in the overall frequency of soap use and compliance with the correct
handwashing technique among the participants. Findings from this study provide valuable information on the possible use of the HAM model to develop a customized
food safety educational program to improve food safety behavior among school food
handlers. This study is the first one known to test the HAM using observational food
safety behavioral data empirically. Future studies should focus on identifying other
variables that may bridge the intention-behaviour gap, especially for contamination
prevention. |
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