ABSTRACT
The study investigated the assessment of the hygiene practices of mobile traders at Egor local government area of Edo State. In order to achieve the objectives, five research questions were raised while one of the research questions was reformulated into null hypothesis which was tested in the course of the study at a 0.05 level of significance.
The study adopted a survey research design of the descriptive technique. From a target population of one hundred and fifty-four (154) mobile traders, a sample size of seventy-seven (77) participants was selected for the study using a proportionate and a simple random sampling technique. Theinstrument that was adopted for data collection was a self-designed Questionnaire which was titled: Assessment of Hygiene Practices of Mobile Traders Questionnaire (AHPMTQ). The Instrument was validated using the expert's judgement approach in order to ensure that it measured what it intended to measure. The reliability of the instrument was carried out using the internal consistency reliability whereby the researcher adopted the Crombach's alpha method that produced a weighted Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70. The instrument was administered personally by the researcher in company of two assistants, while the data collected were analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics consisting of frequency count, simple percentages, mean score analysis standard deviation as well as the use of the independent sample t-test to test the null hypothesis for the study at 0.05 level of significance.
After analysis, the study revealed that mobile traders have poor hygiene practices in the handling and displaying their goods in Egor local government area of Edo State, that, mobile traders do not effectively manage the waste they generate during their trading hours in Egor local government area of Edo State and that there is no significant difference between the male and female mobile traders in hygiene practices in Egor local government area of Edo State. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that mobile traders have poor hygiene practices in the handling and displaying their goods in Egor local government area of Edo State and that there is need for urgent policy action to reverse the ugly situation. It was however recommended among others that the government through the grassroots or at local government levels should carry out regular inspections and monitoring of mobile traders' hygiene practices, that there should be mandatory training sessions or workshops organized for mobile traders on proper hygiene practices, including food handling, storage, and waste management among others.
