Effect of Education on Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Iranian Adult Population toward Food Additives

Nowadays, more than 2,500 additives are added to foods to achieve the desired goals or to extend the shelf life. However, application of these substances has raised concerns about consumers’ health. It seems public information on these substances is inadequate; hence, influence of education is evaluated on public awareness, attitude and practice.

This interventional study is an attempt to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practices of 80 Iranian adult population who were chosen from personnel of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences with respect to food additives in two groups of case (n = 40) and control (n = 40). Face to face education of food additives performed by pamphlet and booklet with the concept of food additives. Demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice of people evaluated through self-administered questionnaire with the maximum score of 100 in the form of pre and post test. The score below and above 50 considered weak and desirable. Statistical analysis was performed in SPPS with the significance less than 0.05.

Before education, the scores of knowledge, attitude and practices toward food additives in the control group were 73.1 ± 8.2, 48.9 ± 4.7 and 46.7 ± 5.4 while the scores were 73.7 ± 7.3, 48.2 ± 6.4 and 45.4 ± 7.8 in case group, respectively. In parallel, the scores were 73.9 ± 8.7, 48.1 ± 4.7 and 45.6 ± 7.3 after education in control group. The scores improved to 88.9 ± 2.3, 80.9 ± 3.7 and 75.9 ± 4.7 for knowledge, attitude and practices in the case group, respectively. The significant difference in the scores showed the impact of education on participants toward food additives.

Regarding the results of our study, the efficacy of education toward food additives was observed in population of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The highest and lowest scores were allocated to knowledge and practices of participants. Therefore, continuous education toward food additives is recommended for consumers to select the proper and healthier food.