Factors Associated with Personal Hygiene Practices in Food Sanitation among Food Handlers at Burapha University

Abstract

This cross-sectional analytical study aimed to investigate personal, predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors, based on the PRECEDE Model framework, associated with personal hygiene practices in food sanitation among food handlers at Burapha University. The sample consisted of 40 food handlers working in food establishments within the university, purposive sampling. Data were collected from February to March 2026 using a questionnaire and a behavioral observation form. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and relationships were examined using the Chi-square test. Significance level was set at 0.05. The results revealed that the majority of food handlers were female (80.00%), with the largest age group being 51 years and older (32.50%). Most participants had a high level of food sanitation knowledge (predisposing factor) (95.00%); however, 82.50% had never attended a food sanitation training program (enabling factor). Most of them had not received food sanitation on-the-job training (enabling factor) at 55.00. Behavioral observations indicated that 52.50% of food handlers met the overall assessment criteria for personal hygiene practices, while 47.50% did not. The area most requiring improvement was attire, particularly the failure to wear hairnets or head coverings (40.00%) and the wearing of jewelry during work (27.50%). Hypothesis testing revealed that the reinforcing factor of receiving information via television was the only variable significantly associated with personal hygiene practices (p = 0.040), while personal factors, predisposing factors, enabling factors, and other reinforcing factors showed no statistically significant associations (p > 0.05). The findings indicate that knowledge levels and the completion of training may not be sufficient to result in proper hygiene practices. Emphasis should be placed on using television, moving images, or short videos to clearly illustrate the practices in order to encourage behavioral change during actual work. The sample size of this study is relatively small, which limits the inference of the results to other contexts.