Inadequate hand-washing among chefs is a major contributor to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses originating in restaurants. Previous studies have found that mental health influences hygiene behaviors among food handlers, who have a high rate of job burnout. However, it is still unclear whether job burnout leads to restaurant kitchen chefs' poor hand washing behaviors (HWBs). In this study, we interviewed 453 restaurant kitchen chefs in Jiangsu Province, China regarding job burnout and HWBs during the summer (July-August) of 2020. The aims were to investigate job burnout (an individual internal motivation factor), identify determinants of job burnout, and examine the association between job burnout and HWBs. Variance analysis, post hoc multiple comparisons, linear regression models, and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the response data. This study revealed that chef age and the scale of the restaurant were significantly and negatively associated with reduced professional efficacy. Combined cuisine and pastry chefs had a more positive perception of their own professional efficacy than the other kitchen chefs, whereas the incidence of exhaustion was significantly higher in pastry chefs than in cuisine chefs and kitchen hands. Reduced professional efficacy was significantly and negatively associated with HWBs for all chefs. To improve the level of hand hygiene among chefs, measures should be taken to enhance chefs' professional efficacy. Furthermore, close attention should be paid to chefs in small-scale restaurants, younger chefs, cuisine chefs, pastry chefs, and kitchen hands.
Keywords: Chinese chefs; Job burnout; hand washing; restaurant kitchens; self-reported behaviors.