“Impact of Maternal Food Safety and Hygiene Practices on Child Nutrition in Urban Slums of Sambalpur"
Background:- Food safety knowledge involves understanding and applying practices that prevent food borne illnesses, ensuring food remains safe for consumption. This includes proper handling, preparation, storage, and sanitation to avoid contamination by harmful pathogens, chemicals, and physical hazards. Mother’s nutritional knowledge plays a crucial role in safeguarding children from factors that contribute to low weight-for-height z-score (WHZ), low weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) and low height-for-age z-score (HAZ). This study seeks to examine the relation between maternal food safety knowledge, practices and their influence on the nutritional status of children aged 6 months to 5 years. Methods:- A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 550 purposively selected mothers of children aged 6 months to 5 years in urban slums of Sambalpur. Data on cooking practices, nutrition knowledge, hygiene and sanitation were collected using structured tools, and children's nutritional status was assessed through anthropometry. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS v23, applying descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, Pearson correlation, and multinomial regression (p ≤ 0.05). Results:- Although variations in mothers' food safety knowledge were observed across different categories of children's nutritional status (wasting, stunting, underweight, and CIAF), these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Most mothers, regardless of their child's nutritional status, had poor to fair food safety knowledge. Correlation analysis showed a weak but significant positive relationship between mothers' food safety knowledge and child wasting (r = .094, p = .028), while no significant correlation was found with stunting. Strong correlations were observed among child nutritional indicators, particularly between wasting and underweight (r = .571), and between stunting and CIAF (r = .690), all significant at p < .001. Multivariate analysis identified family structure and cooking practices as significant factors associated with stunting; children from nuclear families and those with better maternal cooking practices had lower odds of stunting. Other factors, including gender, family size, religion, caste, socioeconomic status, food safety knowledge, and hygiene conditions, showed no statistically significant associations. Conclusion:- Mothers’ food safety knowledge varied across child nutritional categories but showed no significant association, except for a weak positive correlation with wasting. Stunting was significantly associated with family structure and cooking practices, whiles other demographic, socioeconomic, and hygiene factors showed no significant impact.