Determining motivation to engage in safe food handling behaviour

Purpose: To apply the protection motivation theory to safe food handling in order to determine the efficacy of this model for four food handling behaviours: cooking food properly, reducing cross-contamination, keeping food at the correct temperature and avoiding unsafe foods. Design: A cross-sectional approach was taken where all protection motivation variables: perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, response efficacy, and protection motivation, were measured at a single time point. Findings: Data from 206 participants revealed that the model accounted for between 40 and 48% of the variance in motivation to perform each of the four safe food handling behaviours. The relationship between self-efficacy and protection motivation was revealed to be the most consistent across the four behaviours. Implications: While a good predictor of motivation, it is suggested that protection motivation theory is not superior to other previously applied models, and perhaps a model that focuses on self-efficacy would offer the most parsimonious explanation of safe food handling behaviour, and indicate the most effective targets for behaviour change interventions. Originality: This is the first study to apply and determine the efficacy of protection motivation theory in the context of food safety

What's law got to do with it Part 2: Legal strategies for healthier nutrition and obesity prevention

This article is the second in a two-part review of law's possible role in a regulatory approach to healthier nutrition and obesity prevention in Australia. As discussed in Part 1, law can intervene in support of obesity prevention at a variety of levels: by engaging with the health care system, by targeting individual behaviours, and by seeking to influence the broader, socio-economic and environmental factors that influence patterns of behaviour across the population. Part 1 argued that the most important opportunities for law lie in seeking to enhance the effectiveness of a population health approach

Listeria education in pregnancy: lost opportunity for health professionals

Objective: To explore the level of Listeria awareness among pregnant women attending antenatal services and to gain a better understanding of womens perception of Listeria risk and factors that affect their practice in this regard. Method: This was a cross-sectional study carried out over the period of April and November 2006 using a convenience sample of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics/classes in one private and two major public hospitals in South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Services, NSW. Women were asked to participate by completing a self-administered questionnaire based on the standard food safety recommendations for pregnant women to avoid Listeria infection. The association between different socio-demographic variables and Listeria knowledge, related food practices, and womens perception of Listeria risk were investigated using bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: Nearly half of the 586 respondents had received some kind of information on Listeria prevention. The main channel for obtaining food-related information was social environment. More than 57 percent of participants had an incomplete knowledge of high Listeria risk foods, and approximately 25 percent of them continued the consumption of these foods with a relatively high frequency. A strong association was found between womens knowledge and their practice. Lower education and household income, unplanned pregnancy and non-English speaking background were associated with incomplete knowledge and more frequent consumption of at-risk foods. Conclusion and Implications: The provision of advice on Listeria prevention appears to be insufficient during prenatal consultations early in pregnancy and needs to be improved as an essential component of these services