Design and Evaluation of Food Safety Education for High Risk Groups

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: There is a need to examine food safety education programs to assure that messages are aimed at reducing the risk of the most prevalent and/or serious causes of foodborne illness and that the most vulnerable population groups are aware of their greater risk. The goal of this project is to expand the information learned in our previous studies to the benefit of three specific population groups who are at greatest risk for succumbing to foodborne illness : 1) pregnant women, 2) patients on chemotherapy or with organ transplant, and 3) patients with HIV or AIDS. To realize this goal, focus groups designed to better understand food safety attitudes and behaviors will be conducted in Ohio, Colorado and Washington. Prototypes of educational materials, formatted for each of the three targeted groups, will be developed, evaluated, and revised into final products. After the successful completion of the project, it is expected that the educational curricula materials, designed for the three high-risk groups, will be available for use by food safety educators and health care professionals. This study will address the USDA, NRI goal of identifying obstacles to adopting safe food habits, as well as the development of intervention strategies to improve food safety habits.

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APPROACH: Focus groups designed to better understand food safety attitudes and behaviors will be conducted with members and/or support family members of the three groups(pregnant women, patients on chemotherapy or with organ transplants, and patients with HIV/AIDS)at high risk for foodborne illness in Ohio, Colorado and Washington. Support family members will be included because their food handling behaviors are just as important as the members, if they are responsible for preparing food for the household. Based on findings in the focus groups, several prototypes of educational materials specifically targeted to each of the three high-risk groups will be developed and formatively evaluated by the project team, health care professionals and members form the three targeted audience to determine general likability, clarity of content, interest, believability of the message and extent to which the message is likely to promote a change in behavior. Based on the results of the evaluation, the message and message formats will be revised into final products, which will be made available in camera-ready format to the funding agency, support agencies of the three high-risk groups targeted, other educational groups and health care professionals through the publication offices of The Ohio State University, Colorado State University and Washington State University involved in the project.

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PROGRESS: 2001/12 TO 2004/12 <BR>
This project aimed to design and evaluate food safety education materials for three specific population groups who are at the greatest risk for succumbing to foodborne illness because of their suppressed or compromised immune function: 1) pregnant women, 2) patients on chemotherapy or with organ transplant, and 3) patients with HIV or AIDS. The objectives of the project were to: 1) conduct focus groups and administer questionnaires to members of three specific high risk groups to identify attitudes toward food, eating and food safety behaviors, along with motivators and barriers to modifying those food handling behaviors identified through previous research as high high-risk behaviors for immune compromised persons, 2) develop prototypes of educational materials that are specifically targeted to each of the three high-risk groups and aimed at improving food safety attitudes and promoting the adoption of safe food consumption and handling behaviors, 3) for each set of materials developed, evaluate reactions to the materials with members of target audiences and elicit recommendations for changes, 4) revise the materials as needed; offer copies of materials to other educational groups on a cost-recovery basis. All the objectives have been accomplished. For Objective 1, 15 focus groups were conducted among the targeted audiences by researchers from The Ohio State University, Colorado State University and Washington State University (3 with cancer patients, 2 with organ transplant patients, 5 with HIV/AIDS patients, 5 with pregnant women), 11 interviews were conducted with bone marrow transplant patients. The targeted audience food safety attitudes and needs were assessed and their motivators and barriers in following food safety recommendations were identified. The information paved the way to the development of educational materials specific to the three targeted groups. For Objective 2, researchers from The Ohio State University successfully developed prototypes of educational materials for cancer patients, solid organ transplant patients and bone marrow transplant patients; researchers from Colorado State University developed food safety educational materials for pregnant women; researchers from Washington State University developed food safety educational materials for HIV/AIDS patients. For Objective 3, all the materials developed by the researchers were fist reviewed by the research teams from the three universities and by food safety experts in the country and were revised accordingly. Then they were evaluated by targeted audiences through focus group discussions and interviews. For Objective 4, all the materials were revised heavily according to the feedback from the targeted audiences and were finalized. The final products include 3 sets of food safety educational materials for cancer patients, bone marrow transplant patients and solid organ transplant patients respectively; 5 sets of food safety educational materials for pregnant women; and 2 sets of food safety educational materials for HIV/AIIDS patients. These materials are available to educational groups to use through the respective universities.
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IMPACT: 2001/12 TO 2004/12<BR>
The food safety educational materials developed specifically for cancer patients, solid organ transplant patients, bone marrow transplant patients, pregnant women, and HIV/AIDS patients will be useful for educators and health care providers working with those patients.