| Objectives:To understand the status of pregnant women's, knowledge and perchasing behavior on food safety in Lanzhou city, find out all kinds of influencing factors about their knowledge and perchasing behavior on food safety, looking for effective approach for developing health education, so as to provide basic information for future intervention studies.Methods:The 503 pregnant women were chosen of prenatal checks in five hospitals in Lanzhou city, and then complete the questionnaire about pregnant women's food safety. Making questionnaire based on reference documentation. A comprehensively analysis was conducted of pregnant women on food safety.Result:1,Food safety concerns and its influence factorsMost pregnant women (82.30%) concerned about food safety. However, their age, education level, occupation and family per capita monthly income level affect the level of food safety concerns(P＜0.05).2,Food safety knowledge and its influencing factorsMost pregnant women whose recognition rate about nutrition knowledge, health knowledge and the related laws or acts knowledge on food safety were low. The ratio of questions'recognition does not surpass 50%. Knowledge of food safety issues will be quantified, the total score of knowledge is 30 points, but the average score is (15.03±1.34), education level, occupation and monthly income of per family are the major influencing factors on food safety knowledge.3,Some recognition of safe foodMany pregnant women have some misunderstanding of safe food.46.71% of people believe that natural food is safe food,53.70% of people think that the food with additives is insecurity,33.13% of the people think that the food which is used of pesticides, fertilizers, will certainly pose a threat to the safety of food,19.14% of the people think that the food with more vivid color is not security.4,Purchasing behavior and its influencing factorsThe place where many pregnant women bought food is related with food category. When they bought meat and milk, they often went to supermarket. However, when they bought grains, vegetables, fruits, beans and its products, they always select convenience stores. To sum up, supermarket and convenience store are two major places which provided them all kinds of foods they desired. Most pregnant women considered convenience as the primary reason of choosing where to buy their foods. However, safety is the second reason to choose spot buy. They are less concerned with price of food. The safety consciousness is lower compared with packed food when they bought random-weight food. When buying packaged foods, many pregnant women have higher safety awareness, while, when purchasing bulk foods, their food safety awareness becomes low. The pregnant women who determine whether or not the food is safe by looking brand, price and advertising are more. However, the pregnant women who determine whether or not the food is safe by looking at food labels are less. Many pregnant women considered that the brand of food is primary factor to judge a kind of food which is safe or not.64.40% of the respondents agree that food safety should be higher prices than the average food.76.54% of the respondents are willing to pay a higher price for safe food than ordinary food within a certain range of price. There is a correlation between attention of food safety and attention of food brand. The main factors affecting brand choice are food safety concerns, occupation and family per capita monthly income level. The higher the per capita monthly income, the higher the level of food safety concerns, prefer to buy food when large-scale supermarkets, focusing more on food brands. In addition, the degree of food security concerns, monthly income of per family and occupation of the pregnant women will affect their willingness to pay. Pregnant women's education level, occupation and monthly income of per family affect their buying behavior(P＜0.05). The knowledge and purchasing behavior of food safety are relevant (r=0.346, P=0.014).5,Rights awareness of pregnant women85.60% of pregnant women who have encountered a variety of food safety issues, however, only 43.60% of them would claim for compensation, most other pregnant women do not complain.79.01% of them had no habit of asking for invoices after payment for foods.6,Food safety problemsAll of the most common food safety problems, the most serious is the counterfeit and shoddy food products (82.51%). The followed is expired food products (67.90%). The third place is packed substandard food products (42.59%). In the most worried about food safety issues, the criminal misuse of non-food processing of chemical substances is the first (88.48%), the followed is counterfeit and shoddy food (81.28%), food processing use of poor, the third is low-grade raw materials (76.54%).70.58% of respondents believe that producers, operators of food should bear greater responsibility.7,Evaluation for food market and dining situation of pregnant womenMost pregnant women considered that the situation of food safety is not optimistic. All of the different kinds of foods, the snacks were considered the most unsafe.There is a lower evaluation of the food service industry on the current food market, most pregnant women did not satisfied with food quality,41.67% of them gave the evaluation of 50 points or less on food safety (full score is 100 points); 84.98% of the respondents had dining experience outside, such as hotels, restaurants, etc.68.93% of pregnant women concerned about health conditions when they choose to go out to dinner. They have a high evaluation of high and medium-sized restaurants.8,Attitude towards food safety issuesIn improving food security situation,77.98% of pregnant women think that governments should strengthen supervision and inspection,64.40% of pregnant women think that the government should severely punish offenders. It can be seen that most respondents hope government play a major role to improve the food security situation. Most people have a strong desire to enhance their food safety knowledge. 82.16% of pregnant women would like to learn knowledge and relevant laws of food safety to safeguard the health of themselves and their families,90.65% of respondents would like to make their diet more safety and secure,78.52% of pregnant women are willing to through food safety education to promote health.9,The demand of food safety knowledge72.84% of pregnant women need to know the knowledge about food safety and nutrition health,53.70% of pregnant women would like to know the skills of distinguish whether the food is good or safe.10,The main approaches of food safety knowledgeThe main sources of information on food safety were TV programs, news papers and network, accounting for 77.57%,58.44% and 52.26%; However, they hope that government and all kinds of media should do more to publicize food safety knowledge by sending brochures or leaflets, television, food safety lectures, etc. The ratios of these three forms of propaganda were 61.73%,54.12% and 46.09%.ConclusionPregnant women have fair opinions of food safety, but a poor knowledge and consciousness of food safety, and also a poor consciousness of self protection. The relationship between knowledge and awareness of food safety is complementary. To improve food safety awareness and foster scientific consumer behavior, it is necessary to carry out public education on food safety.The main sources of information on food safety were TV programs, news papers and network. But they hope that they can get information on food safety through government propaganda. Further education about those issues is needed.SuggestionTo promote the diet safety of pregnant women and others, so as to facilitate maintenance of good health, some interventions should be taken to carry out education of food safety and health, in order to raise awareness of food safety and consumer rights protection. It is general trends to lead consumption with scientific consume concept. Government departments and a variety of media should take measures to enhance the publicity of food safety information in various forms such as brochures, flyers, television feature films, lectures, etc. |
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