الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Food safety at hospitals is of significant importance for the recovery and wellbeing of patients. Reasons beyond unsafe food at hospitals may be related to consumption of food contaminated with microorganisms or their toxins, which may result from unsafe sources, inadequate cooking or unhygienic practices during food preparation, handling and storage.
Objectives: to identify the baseline knowledge and food handling practices of food safety among the food handlers in Ain Shams University Hospitals (ASU), and to develop a health education program about food safety for the food handlers and assess its outcome in ASU Hospitals. Method: one arm intervention study was carried out at the kitchens of ASU hospitals. All food handlers (n=75) in ASU hospital kitchens were recruited in this study. The study was carried out in three phases, the first phase was evaluation of baseline knowledge and practices of participants using self-administered questionnaire and on site observation checklist (Pre-intervention phase), the second phase was health education program for food handlers (Intervention phase) which included several activities such as power point lecture, demonstration, playing video, interactive discussion and distribution of brochures., and the third phase was evaluation of knowledge and practices after receiving health education program (Post-intervention phase) using the same tools as pre intervention phase. Results: The study showed that the majority of respondents (49.3%) had poor knowledge regarding food safety measures, and46.7% of them had sufficient food safety practices .There was an improvement in food safety knowledge scores as it was 5.33±3.31 in the pre intervention, then improved to 5.92 ± 2.28, 7.21±2.47 and 9.80±1.92 immediately, 3 and 6 months after intervention respectively. A statistically significant difference was found when comparing food safety knowledge scores pre intervention with each time period post intervention (p<0.001). Results also, showed that food safety practices scores was 8.35±2.06, improved to 9.20 ± 1.77, 10.27±1.23 & 11.40±0.70 before intervention, and immediately, 3months and 6 months after intervention respectively. Also, there was a statistically significant difference in food safety practice scores when comparing food safety practice scores pre intervention with each time period post intervention(p<0.001).Conclusion & Recommendations: This study showed that training of food handlers on food safety has a significant impact on their knowledge and practices regarding this issue. We suggested that food safety intervention through continuous training programs must be done at regular basis even during normal working hours, so that corrective steps can be taken immediately after failures are identified,. Meanwhile, periodic application of educational guidelines at university hospital kitchens should be provided at regular basis to improve food handlers knowledge and practices about safety food measures.