LEARN Lao PDR - Manuscript: Knowledge, Practices and Related Factors for Food Hygiene Among Street Food Vendors in Vientiane Capital, Laos

Knowledge, Practices and Related Factors for Food Hygiene Among Street Food Vendors in Vientiane Capital, Laos

ABSTRACT

Hygiene standards and practices for street food vendors constitute a significant part of food hygiene in many urban areas for developing countries. Food contamination is a major cause of death and illness due to diarrhea. This study assessed the knowledge, practices and their related factors for hygiene among street food vendors in four urban districts of Vientiane Capital, Laos.

A cross-sectional study using face to face interviews and observations of 196 street food vendors in four urban areas with respect to their handling of food in the main streets, fresh markets and public places was performed. The STATA 11 program was used to analyze the data for descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and minimum and maximum values to find correlations among factors using multiple logistic regressions.

Most of the street food vendors are female (81.6%) with an average age of 39.07 (±10.6 years, min 14-max 61); with 63.2% of them have stationary food stalls; 78.1% of the street food vendors perform this as their main occupation; 70.9% of the vendors are regulated and licensed by the local government. Less than 50% of the vendors showed a good level of knowledge and one-third of them stated good hygiene practices and applied environmental sanitation for pre-processing, processing and preservation. The main factors associated with a good level of practice in food hygiene were being in possession of a health certificate (AOR=0.4, 95% CI=0.2-0.7), having a desire to know about food hygiene (AOR=0.4, 95% CI=0.2-0.9), being trained in food hygiene (AOR=0.4, 95% CI=0.2-0.8), making it their main occupation (AOR=0.5, 95%

CI=0.3-0.8), being regulated and licensed by the local government (AOR=2.3, 95% CI=1.2-4.6), and having a knowledge about the causes of food contamination (AOR=2.3, 95% CI=1.1-4.6).

The study found that the knowledge and practices of vendors were at a poor level. There is a need for educational programs to improve vendors’ knowledge especially to emphasize translation of theory into practice.