Knowledge, attitudes and community practice toward outbreak of food borne disease in Pardis and Rodehen(winter 2013)

This Study conducted after diarrheal outbreak that occurred in Pardis city in Iran. The aim of study was to evaluate Knowledge, attitudes and community practice toward outbreak of food borne diseases in Pardis and Rodehen. A KAP survey was conducted from January to march 2013 enrolling 526 people aged over 15 years (response rate: 97%). The questionnaire included the following parts: (a) 16 questions referred to general and demographic characteristics like gender, educational level, source of health information; (b) 12 questions regarding knowledge (Min=0, Max=36); (c) 10 questions regarding attitude (Min=0, Max=50); and (d) nine questions regarding practice (Min=0, Max=27). The data were analyzed by STATA11 software. The mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice were 16.34 (SD=4.63), 32.81 (SD=5.03), and 2.66 (SD=3.81) respectively. The mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice about food-borne and water-borne outbreaks were significantly higher among community without diarrhea outbreak compared to the community with diarrhea outbreak. Also knowledge and practice scores were significantly higher among people who had obtained their health information from television in 30 days ago(p =0.001, p =0.015, p=0.095). According to adjusted linear regression analysis, one unit increase in knowledge or attitude score leads to 0.72 increase in practice score (p<0.001). Increasing the knowledege and attitude of the community towards food and water borne diseases will improve their practice and facilitates controlling the outbreaks of communicable diseases.