Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Food Hygiene of Nursing Homes in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of hygiene education for the safe and healthy diet of the elderly by analyzing hygiene knowledge, attitude, and practice of food hygiene in nursing homes that do not legally be required to hire a dietitian. A total of 40 nursing homes participated in a survey that combines telephone and mail. As a result, most of the food service management of the nursing home surveyed was conducted by the director (80.5%) or secretary (13.8%), not by dietitians, and their answer rate of hygiene knowledge related to elderly food-service was 54.7%. In 6 of the 7 hygiene knowledge questions, there was a significant difference in the distribution of correct answer rates between the groups with and without hygiene education (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). In 5 out of 8 food hygiene attitude questions, all respondents (100%) showed a desirable hygiene attitude, and 99.0% of the respondents responded with a desirable attitude. The overall average practice rate for 8 hygienic practices items was 69.7%, and 6 of the 8 items showed significant differences in the distribution between those with and without hygiene education (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). Therefore, in order for the foodservice for the nursing home resident elderly to be managed hygienically and safely, hygiene education and training programs for foodservice managers such as directors and secretaries must be provided, and in order to manage the nursing home foodservice field, it is necessary to investigate the hygiene knowledge and practice degree of cooks and to prepare education and field management measures.