Health Status of Food Handlers and Associated Factors at Hotels and Restaurants in Adama Town, Ethiopia

Introduction: Foodborne diseases are a public health concern globally. Each year as many as 600 million, or almost 1 in 10 people in the world, fall ill after consuming contaminated food. However, there is limited information about the health status of food handlers in the study area.  Thus, the study assessed the health status of food handlers and associated factors at hotels and restaurants in Adama town, Ethiopia from November 13 to December 12, 2017. By using a cross-sectional study design and simple random sampling technique, data collected from 422 sampled food handlers. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis used to describe the study population and identify associated factors.  The study revealed food handlers with good health status found to be 160 (37.9%), and the rest categorized as poor. The study found that hand washing before/after food preparations (PV=0.001), hand washing after toilet visits/dirt (PV= 0.001), training (PV= 0.036), medical checkups (PV=0.001) and clean work uniforms (PV=0.001) were factors independently associated with the health status of food handlers. This study concluded that a large proportion (62.1%) of food handlers found to be poor in their health status. Therefore, washing hands before food preparation, after toilet/contacts dirt, wear of clean work uniforms, attending training and medical check-up are important actions in maintaining the good health status of food handlers