Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 251 (2009)Knowledge, attitude and practice of unpasteurized milk consumption amongstwomen in Al Ain, UAEStudent Authors: Shaikha Sulaiman Ahmed Al Houqani, Salwa Saeed Mohammed AlKaabi, Ahlam Abdulghafoor Mohamed Al Awadi,Maryam Ali Bati Al Qaydi, Fatima YousifMohamed Ismail, Zainab Ahmed Husain BaqerFaculty Supervisors: Dr. I. Blair, Prof. N. NagelkerkeAbstract:Introduction: Unpasteurized milk consumption has become a “trendy” notion amongnatural food proponents. Interestingly enough, this budding notion of promoting it inwestern countries has always been a traditional practice in the Arab states andsouthern Asian societies. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, unpasteurized milkconsumption is embraced as an integral part of the local food habits. The currentstudy aims to assess and subsequently minimize unpasteurized milk consumption as ahigh risk behavior among citizens of Al Ain District.Methods: The study was carried out amongst female attendees of the Al Markhaniaand Al Hayer Family Development Foundation (FDF) branches in Al Ain District. A totalof 246 participants were included. Self-administered questionnaires of 34 items wereused and results were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. For the backgroundinformation gathering, the investigators addressed the following governmentalagencies: Al Ain Municipality, Al Ain Veterinary Services (AVS), Abu Dhabi FoodControl Authority (FCA), Al Ain Preventive Medicine Department (PMD), and TawamHospital Microbiology Laboratory.Results: Two hundred and forty six responses were included in the analysis. Twentypercent of the sampled population was drinking unpasteurized milk. Of the nonconsumers,86% knew someone else who practices unpasteurized milk consumptionlike parents, grandparents and siblings. Sixty three percent of the consumers hadtheir own farms as a source of unpasteurized milk. Unfortunately, of those only 56%reported annual screening of their animals for infections. Camel raw milk wasconsumed by 67.5% of the consumers. The epidemiological factor that was associatedwith raw milk consumption was being UAE national. Knowledge score was significantlydifferent between consumers and non-consumers. Variables that influenced theknowledge score were: age, area of residency (urban versus rural) and educationallevel.Conclusion: We can conclude from this study that unpasteurized milk consumption is acommon practice among the locals in our representative sample. The demographicprofile of this practice is crossing all age groups, educational levels, areas of residencyand financial income. Factors contributing to consumption were inherited distortedknowledge and attitude towards the risks and benefits of unpasteurized milkconsumption.