Effectiveness of home-based food storage training: a community development approach

A community-based home hygiene training initiative, funded by Merseyside Health Action Zone, was piloted in Dingle, a deprived area of Liverpool, UK, during Spring and early Summer 2000. The project actively involved the community, and home-based domestic hygiene training was delivered by community-based facilitators to households in Dingle, Liverpool. During the project the community-based facilitators visited 904 households on two separate occasions. During the first visit, the community-based facilitators completed a questionnaire and an 'action sheet' which had been designed to measure participants' prior knowledge and behaviour, in relation to a range of important food hygiene issues, and delivered the home-based food hygiene training. Within 8 weeks of the first visit, the community-based facilitators returned to the participating households and completed a second questionnaire and action sheet. Home-based training is effective in raising awareness, and community development approach has the advantage of facilitating access to households which otherwise would have been difficult to reach.