Factors associated Food Safety Behaviors Among Lactating Mothers

Abstract

This research aimed to study 1) the awareness, attitude, and perceived risks of food safety including food safety behavior. 2) to study the relationship between awareness, attitude, and perceived risks of food safety with food safety behaviors among lactating mothers, were divided into 5 aspects: 1) Cleanliness 2) Separation of cooked and raw food 3) Cooking 4) Maintaining appropriate food temperature 5) Using water and safe ingredients. The research instruments were 1) a questionnaire on personal information of breastfeeding mothers; 2) a Food Safety Awareness Test 3) a Food Safety Attitude Test 4) a Food Safety Perceived risks Test 5) a Food Safety Behavior Scale. There are 127 subjects of this study, including breastfeeding mothers in Surat Thani province from January to February 2023. Found that content validity index was 0.88, 0.73, 0.74 and 0.84 and reliability every research instruments was 1 Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the Spearman rank correlation The results of this study revealed that awareness of food safety ranked at the highest level, was 22.2 points (S.D.=3.22). The attitude about food safety ranked at a high level, was 18.84 points (S.D.=2.41). The perceived risk of food safety ranked the highest level, was 20.17 points (S.D.=2.87). The food safety behavior classified as a moderate level, was 15.27 points (S.D.=2.56). According to spearman rank correlation statistics, awareness, attitude, and risk perception of food safety, there was a moderate positive correlation with food safety behaviors in breastfeeding mothers P<.05 (r=.578, r=.304, and r=.455, respectively).