Control beliefs and engagement in hygienic and safety behaviours: the case of foodborne illness

Abstract

Foodborne illness is an ever-growing concern in public health. Studies found that conventional training is not enough to cause employees to apply the hygiene and safety measures. The present study explores control and fatalistic beliefs as potential factors for explaining engagement in preventive actions. Two-hundred and seventeen employees of a fast-food restaurant (75 % of all staff) answered a questionnaire assessing their control beliefs, fatalistic beliefs, risk perception, and engagement in hygienic and safety behaviours. The results validated our hypotheses. Control beliefs were positively related to engagement in hygienic and safety behaviours (b = 0.43, p < 0.001). The inverse relation was observed for fatalistic beliefs (b = - 0.24, p < 0.001). The perceived effectiveness of the prescribed measures seems to be the best predictor of engagement in preventive behaviours, followed by perceived self-efficacy. To increase adherence to preventive measures, it is recommended to enhance staff's self-efficacy and perceived effectiveness of these measures.

Perspectives on Heavy Metal Soil Testing Among Community Gardeners in the United States: A Mixed Methods Approach

“…These study results support the findings of other site-specific research of community gardeners, which concluded that soil testing challenges were related to perceived behavioral control challenges such as paucity of training, insufficient financial support, and difficulty interpreting results [13,27,30,32]. Similar to other studies of food safety and protective behaviors, targeting PBC, particularly related to self-efficacy in interventions may help to increase behavioral compliance [53,54,55]. Moreover, studies recommend that high PBC to perform a behavior occurs when people: (1) believe they can perform the behavior; (2) possess the resources to conduct the behavior; and (3) are able to overcome or manage barriers to the behavior [35,56].…”

Promoting responsible gambling via prevention messages: insights from the evaluation of actual European messages

“…When they are corrected, individuals adopt a more appropriate behavior (Weiner, Osborne, & Rudolph, 2011;Kouabenan & Ngueutsa, 2015). Correcting erroneous beliefs is in fact already used in cognitive therapy as a strategy to treat problem gambling (Ladouceur & Walker, 1996).…”

Determinants of hygienic handling of food by consumers in the COVID-19 pandemic context: A cross-sectional study in Vietnam

“…However, in a different context regarding the frequent food-handlers in Australia, the positive impact of PBC was found on the behavior of keeping food at the correct temperature (Mullan et al, 2015). Similarly, the degree of hygienic and safety implementation was found correlated with handlers' perception of the capability of implementing them in the case of food-handlers of fast-food restaurants in France (Kouabenan & Ngueutsa, 2016). The discrepancy of impacts between models may relate to the difference in at-home food processing culture and habits.…”