Home Food Safety Practice and Household Food Insecurity: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

BACKGROUND: Food safety and food security are interrelated concepts with a profound impact on the quality of human life. The current study, for the first time, was set to identify associations between home food safety practice and household food insecurity a structural equation modeling approach. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, urban households were selected from among 10 health centers of five districts of Tehran, Iran (2015). The following questionnaires were completed: socioeconomic status (SES), food security and food safety. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied for predicting the relationships between SES, food insecurity, and food safety in households. RESULTS: Food security was observed in 56% of households. Mild, moderate and severe food-insecure households were determined to be 29%, 12%, and 3%, respectively. In addition, the scores of home food safety practice in 37.5%, 33% and 29.5% of the households were classified as desirable, acceptable and weak, respectively. Low-educated mothers having husbands with low educational and occupational level had a weaker food safety practice compared to high-educated ones. Based on the SEM results, an inverse association between food safety practice and food insecurity score was observed (t= -2.89, ɣ = 0.16). CONCLUSION: Food insecurity and undesirable food safety practice were relatively prevalent among households. In addition, the economic and social factors could inversely affect both food insecurity and food safety practices.

Development of a Home Food Safety Questionnaire Based on the PRECEDE Model: Targeting Iranian Women.

Food safety is an essential public health issue for all countries. This study was the first attempt to design and develop a home food safety questionnaire (HFSQ), in the conceptual framework of the PRECEDE (predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling constructs in educational diagnosis and evaluation) model, and to assess its validity and reliability. The HFSQ was developed by reviewing electronic databases and 12 focus group discussions with 96 women volunteers. Ten panel members reviewed the questionnaire, and the content validity ratio and content validity index were computed. Twenty women completed the HFSQ, and face validity was assessed. Women who were responsible for food handling in their households (n =320) were selected randomly from 10 health centers and completed the HFSQ based on the PRECEDE model. To examine the construct validity, a principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used. Internal consistency was determined with Cronbach's α. Reproducibility was checked by Kendall's τ after 4 weeks with 30 women. The developed HSFQ was considered acceptable with a content validity index of 0.88. Face validity revealed that 95% of the participants understood the questions and found them easy to answer, and 90% confirmed the appearance of the HFSQ and declared the layout acceptable. Principal component factor analysis revealed that the HFSQ could explain 33.7, 55.3, 34.8, and 60.0% of the total variance of the predisposing, reinforcing, practice, and enabling components, respectively. Cronbach's α was acceptable at 0.73. For Kendall's τc, r = 0.89, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.85 to 0.93. The HFSQ developed based on the PRECEDE model met the standards of acceptable reliability and validity, which can be generalized to a wider population. These results can provide information for the development of effective communication strategies to promote home food safety.

Family-based intervention for controlling childhood obesity: an experience among Iranian children.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of childhood obesity is difficult, and successful management may differ in various areas with different cultural backgrounds. The present study was conducted to assess the effect of lifestyle modification family-based intervention in young Iranian children. METHODS: This field trial study was conducted in 2011 among 156 obese children in Tehran, Iran. They were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. At baseline, anthropometric measurements and biochemical analysis were performed. The second and third phases consisted of training sessions for parents of the intervention group. At the fourth phase, there was no training program. In all four phases, questionnaires on demographic characteristics, lifestyle and food frequency were completed by interviewing with mothers, and biochemical analysis was repeated at the end of the study. RESULTS: During the second and third phases of the study, weight and height increased significantly in both groups, although weight increased more slowly, and waist and hip circumferences was decreased in the intervention group. Serum triglycerides and cholesterol decreased significantly in the intervention group (P < 0.05). Analysis of food group consumption showed that in the intervention group, not only consumption of milk, dairy and nuts group increased significantly but also the corresponding figure decreased for bread and cereals, sugar and confectionery ingredients; moreover, the family's oil and fat consumption decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Watching TV and playing on the computer decreased significantly in the intervention group; however, walking time increased significantly in both groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The family-based lifestyle program had limited but desirable effects on anthropometric and metabolic outcomes of the obese children. We suggest that a longer period of intervention may have more favorable results.