Surveying vendors of street-vended food: a new methodology applied in two Guatemalan cities

Lack of reliable data about street vendors, who are difficult to survey, has hampered efforts to improve the safety of street-vended food. A two-phase method for sampling vendors, surveying first in areas of concentrated vending activity identified by local authorities and second in randomly selecte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epidemiology and infection 1999-06, Vol.122 (3), p.409-416
Main Authors: MAHON, B. E., SOBEL, J., TOWNES, J. M., MENDOZA, C., GUDIEL LEMUS, M., CANO, F., TAUXE, R. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Bacterial diseases
Bacteriology
Beverages
Beverages - standards
Biological and medical sciences
Bottled water
Chlorine
Cholera
Cholera - epidemiology
Cholera - prevention & control
Epidemiologic Methods
Epidemiology
Female
Food Inspection - methods
Food safety
Food Services - standards
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Guatemala - epidemiology
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Interviews as Topic
Male
Medical sciences
Microbiology
Middle Aged
Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation
Potable water
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Risk Factors
Sampling Studies
Street vendors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Tap water
Tropical bacterial diseases
Tropical medicine
Vendors
Water Supply - standards
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Description
Summary:Lack of reliable data about street vendors, who are difficult to survey, has hampered efforts to improve the safety of street-vended food. A two-phase method for sampling vendors, surveying first in areas of concentrated vending activity identified by local authorities and second in randomly selected areas, was developed and implemented in two Guatemalan cities where street-vended food had been implicated in cholera transmission. In a 4-day survey in Escuintla, 59 vendors (42 from phase 1, 17 from phase 2) were interviewed. They demonstrated good knowledge of food safety and cholera but unsafe practices, implying that more effective, practical training was needed. In a 6-day survey in Guatemala City, 78 vendors (77 from phase 1, 1 from phase 2) were interviewed. Sixty-eight (87%) vendors stored water, usually in wide-mouthed vessels prone to contamination; this led to a field test of a new system for safe water storage. Useful information for public health planning and intervention can be gathered rapidly with this new method for surveying street vendors.
ISSN:0950-2688
1469-4409
DOI:10.1017/S095026889900240X