Poll shows consumers not wise on health [Archives:2004/719/Business & Economy]

Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
An opinion poll conducted by the Market and Consumer Studies Center on 3000 persons, distributed last Wednesday, shows that more than 70 per cent of Yemeni consumers do not have adequate health consuming awareness.
Yet, they prefer good and reasonably priced goods.
The director of the center, Hamoud Al-Bakhaiti, in a press conference attended by representatives of WHO, National Population Council and Private Sector, stated that consuming awareness in Yemen still needs more government efforts and more commercial and industrial responsibility.
He said that there are still women who do not know when to have anti-chicken box vaccination, which strikes millions of children every year in Yemen.
However, about 80 per cent of subjects in the poll have good knowledge of Aids, probably due to the international media campaign on Aids.
Some citizens in remote governorates said they have little information to differentiate between good and spoiled goods, due to the limited effective media role in dispersing consuming culture.
The poll showed no participation of women in Marib and a limited number of women in Al-Mahweet, Amran and Al-Beidha Governorates.
Al-Bkhaiti said that the people involved in the poll were encouraged to submit their answers in a competition to win YR 700,000 worth in prices for 35 contestants. The poll shows that reading materials are most common in Hadramout and Lahj Governorates where TV Media was in first place in other governorates.
Many women believe that iodine substance is added at the beginning of cooking contrary to the health instruction, which should be added at the end.
Al-Bakhaiti called for more efforts to improve the standard of Yemeni markets, which respect quality and production and marketing.
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