Analysis of Factors Influencing Observation of the World Health Organisation Five Keys to Safe Food through Monitoring of Prevalence of Diarrhoeal Diseases in Mbeya City

Meleki, Peter Ludoviki (2019) Analysis of Factors Influencing Observation of the World Health Organisation Five Keys to Safe Food through Monitoring of Prevalence of Diarrhoeal Diseases in Mbeya City. ["eprint_fieldopt_thesis_type_phd" not defined] thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases has been a universal challenge that poses a public health problem. It threatens many lives and demands huge health care resources to redress it. Unhealthy food handling practices by food vendors have remained a major cause of diarrhoeal diseases. This study is time-honoured for establishing the factors responsible for the intermittent occurrence of diarrhoeal diseases centred on the food vendors’ food handling practices in Mbeya City, in Tanzania. The study instituted a cross-sectional design comprising both quantitative and qualitative methods for which a stratified simple random sampling technique was used. Data were collected from 96 street food vendors by using an intervieweradministered questionnaire and an observation checklist. Data were collected from Jun. to Dec. 2014. The data was processed, organised and analysed using SPSS with which binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted and extracted. The study results showed that 20% of stool specimens and 27 % of the food samples from the study area were found to have microbial pathogens that are capable of spreading diarrhoeal diseases. These determined the health carrier status among the street food vendors. The pre and post-test training indicated that food vendors had adequate information about the five WHO keys to food safety. The study results suggest that improvement in education, safety training of food vendors, casual helpers, social health services and maintenance of food stalls and related infrastructure, toilet facilities need to be planned and imposed by the government including provision of befitting water and sanitation infrastructure for food vendors as well as monitoring equipment, and constant communication through various social media to redress the problem that can lead to major benefits in Mbeya City.

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