Introduction

Nutrition is vital for health. It consists of not only the inclusion of correct foods in the diet but also the inclusion of correct methods of food preparation, maintenance of hygiene, eating practices and healthy food choices on a daily basis. India as a developing country, although with people having increasing awareness of food and nutrition there lies a part of this country’s population which is still unaware of the correct food choices, their preparation methods, their nutritive value, their purpose of inclusion in the diet and correct hygiene practices regarding food.^[1] A specific population of people to highlight is the female domestic workers (housemaids), which are very commonly seen in upper middle-class and middle-class house set ups. Having a housemaid has been a common practice either as a full or a part-time housemaid for the household chores in urban cities. Majority of them are illiterate or have had only their basic primary education due to their socio-economic status - a reason why there could be a lack of awareness regarding the basic hygiene, preparation methods, healthy choices regarding food and the eating practices; these practices connected to housemaids are of major concern. As housemaids are responsible for carrying out all the household chores, cleaning, laundry as well as many of the times cooking and serving the food to elders and children in the house; this leads to stress, anxiety and causes mental health issues in housemaids which affects their work quality. ^[2] Provision of nutrition is carried out by the maids in the house who can unknowingly and sometimes knowingly due to external factors such as lack of time, multiple work shifts, etc. can tend to neglect the correct food & hygiene practices. These have an impact on the health of people in the house she works for and on the health of her family^[3] as well because of lack of knowledge and awareness regarding correct food practices.^[4] A maid’s own health is also compromised because of the same, lack of lean mass, high BMI due to obesity, musculoskeletal disorders are common ^[5], ^[6] this impacts the families the maid works for, her own family and her own health as well and in turn lack of knowledge and inability to put the knowledge to practice, if any, affects the whole community, especially when the world has known the causes and effects of Covid-19 pandemic, ^[7] it becomes altogether more important to focus on the underrated concern of knowledge and practices of housemaids regarding food.

Objective

To study the knowledge and practices regarding food practices among female domestic workers (housemaids) in selected areas of Pune city.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in one ward of each geographical zone of Pune city, Domestic workers employed in randomly selected residential areas were included and data was collected by interview technique during house visits; the data was analyzed by using IBM SPSS 25.0 USA statistical software. 573 of total housemaids, 62% were between 20 to 40 years of age, 35% were educated till middle school. Most of the FDWs had their own house with electricity and water supply. Half of the housemaids were employed for 6 to 10 years and were working in 3 to 4 houses. Approximately 50% of the FDWs earned around 4000 to 8000 per month. In the conclusion of the study the living and working conditions of these FWDs are not as pitiful as they are depicted in previous studies (Aarti B. Pokale et al. 2021).^[2] (Leila Arfaoui et al. 2021)^[8] conducted a study on Food safety knowledge and self-reported practices among Saudi women. The study states that foodborne illnesses due to improper handling of food in home kitchens are one of the significant public health challenges worldwide. This cross- sectional study was conducted to investigate food safety knowledge and self-reported food practices in adult Saudi women. Participants showed an overall knowledge score: 72% and about 4.5%, 57.5% and 38% had low, intermediate and good knowledge scores, respectively. Women had higher scores of knowledges in personal hygiene and purchasing and storage compared to food preparation and cooking. Women aged 26 years and older, those having marriage experience and those with children had significantly higher food safety knowledge than the young, single and women without children. Women with higher levels of education and those employed in health-related professions showed significantly higher knowledge and practice scores. In conclusion, the study reported an intermediate overall food safety knowledge and practices among adult Saudi women.

A cross-sectional study was carried out on 120 female laborers working in construction industries, cashew factories and beedi making factories. Standardized interviews were scheduled to elicit information such as demography, food purchasing patterns and frequency of consuming different foods, weight, height, MUAC were recorded by using standard procedures and equipment. Majority of the participants were daily wagers (72%) and 21% were on monthly payments. Non veg food consumption was done by 82%, food consumption was seen high at 69.4%, curd and green vegetables were a must in the lunch time meals. Type of payment and diet type i.e., food habit (vegetarian/ non vegetarian) exerted an influence on nutritional status of women. 68.5% of daily wagers and 72% of monthly payment receivers were in a normal range of BMI. Occurrence of obesity was less however, 84% of all participants regardless of payment and diet type had a WHR above 0.91 which indicated the prevalence of central obesity. In conclusion of the study, the nutritional status of women laborers was influenced by the type of payments and central obesity was found to be a common feature (Archana Prabhat et al. 2012).^[1]

Result and Discussion

The respondents were studied in terms of their demographic characteristics such as age, BMI, education and socio personal characteristics. These demographic characteristics and socio-economic status have an immense influence on the response’s studies from the participants.

The age group which was divided into two main categories and the majority (62.7%) of the housemaids are from the age group 41 to 60 years and the minority (37.4%) of the house maids are from the age group 20 to 40 years.

[Table 2] shows Body Mass Index category groups of the housemaids, the majority (56%) of them fall into Normal category, followed by (21.4%) in Pre obese category, Underweight category (19.3%), Obese class 1 category (1.3%) and (2%) in Obese class 2 category.

[Figure 1] depicts the education level of the housemaid’s, majority (58%) was illiterate followed by (38%) went to primary school and a minority (4%) of the housemaids went to middle school. The literacy rate of housemaids is mostly towards illiteracy and only a small population of housemaids went to primary and middle school.

The socio-economic status of the housemaids the majority (63.3%) of them are from lower socio-economic strata followed by (32%) are from Upper lower socio- economic strata and lastly minority (4.7%) is towards Lower Middle socio-economic strata of the housemaids. ^[9]

The majority (58%) of practices are in the medium category of practice followed by the (41.4%) of the housemaids who range in the High category of practices. Correct food practice prevalence is less than the incorrect food practices. And a (0.6%) of housemaids falls into the category of Low practices which indicates the lesser prevalence for incorrect practices.

According to [Table 5], it is observed the independent variable; age of the housemaids has been found to be correlated with knowledge at 0.05 level of significance, that is the higher the age of the housemaids, higher the amount of knowledge; as (58%) of the housemaids despite being illiterate have developed an understanding or say knowledge by the means of experience and learning throughout their age. Hence the knowledge of the housemaids is seen to be significantly correlated with age of the housemaids. The education of the housemaids is observed to be negatively correlated with the socio-economic status of the housemaids at a 0.01 level of significance, which states that the low socio-economic status of the housemaids (63.3%) is the one of the main reasons why there is a higher percentage of uneducated housemaids and a low percent of primary school (3%)  and middle school (4%) attended housemaids. The significant correlation between Knowledge and Practices is seen at a 0.001 level of significance, which can be discussed as, the knowledge of the housemaids is high in (70.6%) of and the housemaids practice the knowledge in their homes as well as work places with a moderate (58%) and high (41.4%) percentages. Also, interpretation of the same can be stated as the knowledge acquired through the increasing age of the housemaids went on increasing as they implemented the practices in their daily lives. Although the percentage of practices should have been higher in Excellent category of practices which is 41.4% but it is rather slightly high than that in good category of practices which is 58% with a difference of  16.6%.  Only a 0.6% of housemaids are observed to practicing Poor category of practices which can be due to less knowledge and experience; lack of time which could be because of multiple working shifts in a day. This states that the Knowledge is higher regarding food practices in housemaids and they practice the correct food practices in their daily lives at home and at work despite being illiterate as the knowledge gained is through experience with increasing age of the housemaids. ^[10], ^[11], ^[12] 

Conclusion

The Knowledge and Practices were studied in which the prevalence of correct knowledge of food is more than the incorrect knowledge and the Practices observed states that the prevalence of correct practices being practiced is more than the prevalence of incorrect food handling practices in housemaids. The age of the housemaids was seen to be significantly correlated with the knowledge of food practices, the conclusion can be drawn from this correlation that the majority of the housemaids being illiterate the knowledge is high due to the experience of the housemaids, the knowledge is acquired through experience, learning skills of the housemaids. As the socio-economic status of the housemaids is low and almost many of them belong to the lower socio-economic status that means they were not able to afford their education.^[13], ^[14] The knowledge of housemaids regarding food practices is actually being practiced by them as the majority of the housemaids are illiterate, we can conclude that the knowledge acquired through them could be because of the experience gained with time, by exchange of thoughts or practices by other people, influence of other people's practices on them, through some traditional practices of various cultures, or by learning and acquiring skill or practices through experiences on their own. In conclusion of the study the knowledge regarding food practices of the housemaids is categorized under moderate category, meaning housemaids have basic to moderate knowledge of the correct food practices, and they practice them in their daily lives in their own house as well as at their workplaces.^[15]

Source of Funding

None.

Conflict of Interest

None.