The Effect of a Volunteer-led Training Program in Empowering Women about Food Safety: An Application of Social Cognitive Theory

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a volunteer-led food safety training program based on social cognitive theory on behaviors and their determinants among community women.Methods: This is a single-blinded randomized controlled trial conducted in 8 urban health centers in Marvdasht city, southern Iran. 60 volunteers and 502 women who were selected through multi-stage cluster random sampling method participated in the study. A 4-session food safety training program was implemented for health volunteers in the experimental group (n=30). They then trained the women in the experimental group (n=260) in their local community for a month. Data were collected using validated questionnaires in the group of volunteers before and one week after the intervention and in the group of women before and one month after the intervention. Data were entered in SPSS software version 22 and analyzed using Chi-Square and comparisons between the two groups were conducted by ANCOVA. P lt;0.05 was considered as the significant level.Results: The results of the study showed significant improvements in food safety-related behaviors and their determinants in the experimental groups, i.e., among both health volunteers and community women after the intervention. No significant changes in the study constructs (knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations and behavior) were observed among women in the control group after the intervention.Conclusion: The findings of this study were in favor of the success of health volunteers in food safety training with the aim of improving food safety-related behaviors and their determinants (within the framework of cognitive theory) among community women.