Evaluation of knowledge and attitudes of housewives about health and safety of food in Behshahr city

Incidence of food borne diseases which it is caused by microorganisms is considered as a main public health problem in various communities, and With regard to the fact that women are responsible for food cooking and they need to know comprehensive information about health and food safety. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the knowledge and attitude of housewives about food safety and health in Behshahr city.
In this cross-sectional and descriptive – analytical study, knowledge and attitudes of 350 housewives, who had randomly been selected, were investigated about food safety and health in Behshahr city in 2012. In order to gather information, a questionnaire, which consists of two knowledge and attitude sections, was used. Questionnaires were completed by housewives. The obtained data was statistically analyzed by SPSS-18 software.
The obtained results showed that the mean and range of housewives knowledge scores were 6.16 and zero to 12, respectively. It can be mentioned that the awareness level of housewives was average regarding the mean knowledge score. Mean and range of attitude scores were 33.12 and 10 to 40, correspondingly. Also, there was a significant relationship among education level and levels of knowledge and attitude (p 0.05).
About food safety and health, the levels of knowledge and attitudes of housewives were moderate in Behshahr city. So, it is necessary to try to raise the knowledge, and also change the attitudes of housewives in Behshahr City.