Food safety education as an effective strategy to reduce diarrhoeal morbidities in children less than two years of age.

摘要

Food safety education was imparted to mothers of children 6-24 months (Group 1, n=30) over a period of one month in 5 sessions (Baroda, India). Group 2 did not receive any food safety education. The results indicated a 33% reduction in the diarrhoeal morbidities of the children in the Group 1 where mothers were imparted education on "safe food" practices and diarrhoeal morbidities among children where mothers were not counselled remained unchanged. A significant improvement occurred in the knowledge regarding hygiene and role of microbial contamination in the causation of diarrhoea along with improved perception of hand washing and avoidance of feeding left over contaminated foods as preventive measures. This was supported by reduction in the microbial counts of most samples. The findings of the present study have shown that specific health related instructions given to the mothers such as importance of hand washing and information on the hygienic use of latrines are beneficial. Hence it can be concluded that food safety education can be successfully used as an intervention strategy to reduce diarrhoeal morbidities in children under 2 years of age..