Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Meat Hygiene among Meat Handlers in Lagos State, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/njgp.v18i2.43Keywords:
practices, knowledge, meat hygiene, meat handlers, Lagos, food‑borne diseases, AbattoirsAbstract
Background: Food‑borne disease remains a major global health challenge in developing countries. Cross‑contamination from raw meat due to poor handling as a result of poor knowledge and practices of meat handlers is a major contributing factor for meat‑borne diseases. Adequate knowledge and preventive practices of meat handlers are important in limiting the outbreak of food‑borne disease and contamination of raw meat. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of meat hygiene and the associated factors among meat handlers in abattoirs and slaughter houses in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: A descriptive, cross‑sectional survey was carried out among 318 meat handlers in Lagos, Nigeria, who were selected using a multistage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data concerning their knowledge, attitude, and practice of meat hygiene, and data analysis was done using EpiInfo 7.2.2.16™ for Windows. Chi‑square statistics was used to test the association between the variables at the level of significance of 5%.
Results: The mean age was 39.07 years ± 12.7 standard deviation. Majority had good knowledge (71.1%), attitude (53.1%), and practice (66.6%) of meat hygiene. Significant association was found between knowledge and age (P < 0.001), tribe (P < 0.001), and length of work experience (P < 0.001). There was also a statistically significant association between practice of meat hygiene and age (P < 0.001), tribe (P = 0.0174), level of education (P = 0.0029), work experience (P < 0.001), and religion (P = 0.0194). There was statistically significant association also between knowledge and practice of meat hygiene (P < 0.001). Older meat handlers with more years of work experience (>20 years) had better knowledge and practice of meat
hygiene compared to their younger colleagues.
Conclusions: Public health education, policy formulation, and regular training and retraining of the meat handlers on safe meat handling as well as general and personal hygiene are strongly recommended.
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