[Involvement of local dietetics professionals in risk communication program on food safety in municipal governments and their attitude towards the program].
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to gather statistical references on food safety education that encourages competence of food choice from the view-point of food safety. A survey on the involvement of the risk communication program on food safety in municipal governments and the attitude of local dietetics professionals towards the program was conducted.


METHODS
In November, 2006, self-reported questionnaires were mailed to 1990 local dietetics professionals who worked in municipal governments in Japan. Descriptive statistics and cross tables were used for data analysis.


RESULTS
1162 questionnaires were mailed and 1130 available surveys were returned. Among the respondents, 41.5% answered that they inform the community about food safety, but 49.9% answered that they did not get information from the community. Most of the respondents answered that risk communication of food safety was important; 21.8% answered "extremely agree" and 62.3% answered "rather agree" on a scale of four from "extremely agree" to "do not agree". More than one-half of the dietetics professionals answered that their confidence in conducting risk communication was low; 20.5% answered "no confidence" and 52.5% answered "hardly have confidence" on a scale of four from "without confidence" to "with confidence". More than 80% of the respondents answered that they needed "professional knowledge" and "support from professional agencies".


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that educating local dietetics professionals about professional knowledge on food safety, and obtaining support from special agencies will be essential in the upgrade of risk communication program on food safety in a community.
Akamatsu
Rie
R
Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan. akamatsu.rie@ocha.ac.jp
Nomura
Marika
M
Horiguchi
Itsuko
I
Tanaka
Hisako
H
Marui
Eiji
E
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D004046:Dietetics / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D009111:Local Government; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires