INFORMATION NEEDS ON LASSA FEVER SAFETY PRACTICES AMONG GARRI CONSUMERS

ABSTRACT

One of the media through which Lassa fever spread or contracted in recent time is rats through Garri consumption. Garri is an household staple food in Nigeria that is consumed by all. There documenting the information needs of Garri consumers in a State like Edo in Nigeria will help in identifying the pattern of spread of this disease and how it could be curbed. Therefore, this study was conducted to assessed the safety practices information needs among Garri Consumers in Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, identify the information sources available to the respondents and their preference for the sources, examined safety practices carried out by gari consumers, document safety practice information needs of gari consumers, and analysed constraints faced by gari consumers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 150 respondents in Edo state. However, 148 of them eventually formed the valid sample size for the study. Data were obtained through structured and validated questionnaire and interview schedule and analysed with frequency counts, percentages and Binary Logistic Regression Model and Pearson’s Product Moment Correction.