Physicians as food-safety educators: a practices and perceptions survey.
An estimated 4 million bacterial foodborne illnesses occur in the United States annually. Many of these illnesses can be prevented by educating the public about food-safety practices. We investigated both the role of physicians as food-safety educators and the barriers to providing food-safety information. Participants were randomly selected physicians (n=3117) practicing within the surveillance area of the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network; 1100 were included in the study. Although only 331 (30%) of 1110 respondents provided food-safety information to their patients, 524 (68%) of 769 who did not provide information expressed interest in doing so. Physicians were more likely to provide food-safety information to patients if they perceived foodborne disease to be a serious problem, perceived food-safety education as their role, felt that patients perceived them as a valuable resource for food-safety advice, or felt comfortable making food-safety recommendations. A national physician education campaign that addresses barriers in food-safety education could improve food-safety education by physicians.
Wong
Stephanie
S
Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. skwong@spawar.navy.mil
Marcus
Ruthanne
R
Hawkins
Marguerite
M
Shallow
Sue
S
McCombs
Katherine G
KG
Swanson
Ellen
E
Anderson
Bridget
B
Shiferaw
Beletshachew
B
Garman
Robb
R
Noonan
Kristen
K
Van Gilder
Thomas
T
D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D003625:Data Collection; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010465:Perception; D010819:Physician's Role; D014481:United States