Food Safety Attitudes and Self-Reported Behaviours of Undergraduate Students at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada)

Abstract

Introduction: In Canada, foodborne disease is an important public health issue. Rates of foodborne disease are usually highest among the young and elderly, but an increase in foodborne disease incidence and prevalence is also observed among young adults. Foodborne diseases can be prevented by properly preparing, cooking, and storing food, and the likelihood of individuals using proper food handling and hygiene behaviours varies with their attitude towards food safety. Studies measuring the food safety attitudes and behaviours of young adults, and then exploring the relationship between food safety attitudes and behaviours using relevant behaviour change theories, have yet to be completed in Canada. Therefore, I explored what undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo think about food safety and what they do to prevent foodborne disease by: (i) measuring students’ food safety attitudes; (ii) understanding students’ self-reported food safety behaviours; (iii) exploring if behaviour change theories can be used to examine the relationship between attitudes and self-reported behaviours, and; (iv) exploring the relationship between students’ attitudes and behaviours. Methods: Existing data collected in February 2015 from 470 undergraduate students from the University were analyzed. The attitudes and self-reported behaviours were analyzed descriptively using frequency calculations, and using multiple linear or ordinal logistic regression to determine the significantly associated demographic and food skills and cooking experience characteristics. In addition, the attitudes and self-reported behaviours were mapped against the constructs in previously applied behaviour change theories, as well as the COM-B Model. The theory with most even distribution of attitude and self-reported behaviour questions across the greatest number of theoretical constructs was selected as the framework to examine the relationship between food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours. Structural equation modeling was then used to model the relationship between the collected food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours, while adjusting for potential confounders. Results: In general, undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo had positive food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours. All attitudes, except for “anyone can get sick with food poisoning, even me”, and self-reported behaviours, except for “If I have a cut or sore on my hand, I cover it before preparing food” were significantly associated with one or more of the 13 collected demographic and food skills and cooking experience characteristics. In addition, it was determined that behaviour change theory can be used to examine the relationship between the collected food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours. Even though the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Health Belief Model had the most even distribution of attitude questions across the greatest number of theoretical constructs, all of the attitude and self-reported behaviour questions mapped to constructs in the COM-B Model, and it has not yet been applied to food safety attitude and behaviour literature, so it was used to explore the relationship between food safety attitudes and behaviours of young adults. Finally, using the COM-B Model, I found that some of the collected food safety attitudes were significantly associated with self-reported food safety behaviours. Conclusion: Undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo have good food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours, which, using the COM-B Model, were found to be significantly associated. This is the first study to examine the food safety attitudes and selfreported behaviours of exclusively young adults in Canada, as well as the association between both food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours, and demographic and cooking skills and experience characteristics other than gender or race. In addition, this is the first study to apply the newly developed COM-B Model to food safety attitudes and self-reported behaviours. Future research should build on this thesis by examining undergraduate students’ observed food safety behaviours to determine what undergraduate students actually do to protect themselves from foodborne disease, as well as use cluster analysis to determine whether undergraduate students can be divided into students that are motivated to improve their food safety behaviours and students who need motivation to improve their food safety behaviours in order to tailor interventions, such as messaging, based on the motivational needs of the students.