Determinants of personal hygiene practices: comparison of street food vendors and canteen food handlers in commercial City of Northwestern Nigeria

Background: Increasing consumption of vended foods may pose a significant public health threat associated with food-borne illnesses. Context: Increasing consumption of vended foods may pose a significant public health threat associated with food borne illnesses. Aim: To assess and compare the determinants of personal hygiene practices among street food vendors and canteen food handlers in a commercial city of northwestern Nigeria. Settings and design: Using interviewer-administered questionnaire, comparative cross-sectional design was used Materials and Methods: As much as 310 (in each group) street food vendors and canteen food handlers, selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data analysis used: The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 22.0 Results: The proportion of street food vendors practicing correct personal hygiene measures were 214 (70.2%), compared with 213 (74.0%) canteen food handlers, respectively. There was a significant association between street food vendor's sex, ethnicity, educational status, hepatitis A or typhoid vaccination status, and the correct practice of personal hygiene (P < 0.05). Sex was found to be an independent predictor of personal hygiene practice (adjusted odds ratio = 4.7, 95% confidence interval = 1.3–16.7) among street food vendors with female street food vendors being five times more likely to observe correct personal hygiene practice than their male counterparts. Conclusions: Personal hygiene practice was found to be good among both street food vendors and canteen food handlers. However, there is a need for improvement if food-borne diseases are to be controlled; therefore, the government should ensure training and enforcement of all regulations to improve the personal hygiene practice thereby reducing the burden of food-borne illnesses.