Effect Of Health Education On Food Hygiene Practices Of Food Vendors In Public Secondary Schools At Oshimili South Local Government Area, Delta State.

ABSTRACT

The study examined the effect of health education on hygiene practices of food vendors in

public secondary schools at Oshimili south local government area in Delta state. The purpose

of the study is to assess the practice of food hygiene and effect of health education on

hygiene practices of food vendors in the schools. The Quasi-experimental design (one group

pretest & Post test) was used for the study. The total population of 54 food vendors in five

public secondary schools at Oshimili south local government of Delta state were included in

the study. Two instruments were used for data collection, self developed questionnaire and

direct observation checklist. Health education intervention content was developed based on

the area of deficiencies observed from the pretest result. The reliability coefficient of the

instrument was 0.75 using Cronbach’s Alpha formulae. Data were analyzed using descriptive

and inferential statistics, with the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 15.

The results of the study revealed that hygiene practices of the food vendors improved as

follows; the food vendors that wear neat dress to the vending site always, increased from 16%

in the pretest to 54% in the post test study and food vendors who kept short and clean nails

always, increased from 4% in the pretest to 46% in the posttest findings. Also, the food

vendors who cover their hair always during sales increased from 2% in the pretest findings to

8% in the post test. While food vendors who cover their food against dust and flies always,

increased from 2% in the pretest study to 10% in the post test result. The result further

showed that the mean for hand washing practiced by food vendors increased from 1.71 in the

pretest to 2.12 in the post test. Observation show that two schools have their vending site

close to dumping site, one near the school toilet and all the vending sites were not floored

with cement. Hypothesis tested using Chi-square statistics at P