Readiness of school teachers to accept notifications about causes and preventive measures on food poisoning

INTRODUCTION: In this era of globalization, urbanization, and rapidly expanding unhygienic food corners across the globe, the incidence of food poisoning is very common nowadays.

AIM: The aim of our study was to investigate the perceptions and readiness of schoolteachers to accept notifications on food poisoning as a part of education to the students.

METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with the help of a validated questionnaire for data collection. Our research involved schoolteachers from both primary and secondary schools in Muar. The questionnaire was pretested among the eligible trainee teachers and yielded an internal consistency reliability coefficient (c = Cronbach's alpha) of 0.082. This study was conducted from October 29, 2017, to December 14, 2018, in Muar. Our sample size was 259. Ethical consent was obtained from the Institution Ethical Committee.

RESULTS: A total of 259 schoolteachers from both primary and secondary schools in Muar were included in this study. In our study, 81.1% of the teachers responded that they can easily educate their students about food poisoning. Most of them (93.1%) were ready to receive notifications on food poisoning in any mode, and about 72% of the teachers preferred WhatsApp as their mode of receiving notification. The least (1.2%) preferred mode of notification was LINE (a social app). Teachers' willingness to disseminate the information regarding food poisoning was also higher (98.5%).

CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that majority of the schoolteachers had a good perception and were ready to receive the notifications on food poisoning through WhatsApp as a part of education to the students.