Does Poor Mental Health Impair the Effectiveness of Complementary Food Hygiene Behavior Change Intervention in Rural Malawi?

Jurgita Slekiene (), Kondwani Chidziwisano and Tracy Morse
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Jurgita Slekiene: Global Health Engineering (GHE), Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT), ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 37, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Kondwani Chidziwisano: Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health and Appropriate Technology Development (WASHTED), Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), Private Bag 303, Chichiri, Blantyre 3, Malawi
Tracy Morse: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Level 5 James Weir Building, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: Mental disorders have the potential to affect an individual’s capacity to perform household daily activities such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (food hygiene inclusive) that require effort, time, and strong internal motivation. However, there is limited detailed assessment about the influence of mental health on food hygiene behaviors at household level. We conducted a follow-up study to detect the effects of mental health on food hygiene behaviors after food hygiene intervention delivery to child caregivers in rural Malawi. Face-to-face interviews, based on the Risk, Attitude, Norms, Ability, and Self-regulations (RANAS) model, were conducted with 819 participants (control and intervention group) to assess their handwashing and food hygiene-related behaviors. Mental health was assessed using the validated Self-Reporting Questionnaire. Study results showed a significant negative relationship between mental health and handwashing with soap behavior ( r = −0.135) and keeping utensils in an elevated place ( r = −0.093). Further, a significant difference was found between people with good versus poor mental health on handwashing with soap behavior ( p = 0.050) among the intervention group. The results showed that the influence of the intervention on handwashing with soap behavior was mediated by mental health. Thus, integration of mental health in food hygiene interventions can result in improved outcomes for caregivers with poor mental health.

Keywords: behavior change; public health; humanitarian action; mental health; RANAS; rural Malawi; complementary food hygiene behaviors; evidence-based health promotion; intervention effectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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