Knowledge, attitude and practice of students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences about food hygiene and safety

Food hygiene and safety is considered as an important principle to prevent humans from contracting diseases and also to protect the environment from contamination. Because a large part of Iran's population is young and a high percentage of them are students, therefore, this study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences about food hygiene and safety.

The present descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 307 students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences through a convenience sampling method. A questionnaire including demographic characteristics and questions in three sections were used to assess students' knowledge, attitude and practice towards food health and safety. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 software. Ethics approval and confidentiality of answers were given on the first page of the questionnaire.

The participants were mostly male and single, with the majority belonging to the medical school. Despite the fact that most of the students had good knowledge and attitude towards food hygiene and safety, but about 70.4% of respondents showed poor performance, from which the weakest performance was related to nursing and midwifery students. Students' knowledge and attitude had a statistically significant difference between different faculties. Functionally, a significant relationship was seen between gender and performance.

Given the poor performance of students in relation to the principles of food hygiene, it seems that holding workshops and adding courses can probably improve student performance.