A Study Evaluated Decentralization to Local Governments of The Food and Drug Administration

Abstract

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2016 and August 2017. The objectives of this study were (1) to get a current situation of operation in the local governments according to the mission that has been decentralized from the Food and Drug Administration and (2) to access factors associated an operation of the local government where the authority has been decentralized from the center. Self-reported questionnaires were collected from 835 participants. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistic and inferential statistic included Chi-square, Fisher's exact test and Odd ratio. The analyses were performed by computer,and statistical significant level was considered at 0.05 (p-value < 0.05). The results found that the Local Governments followed the mission which had beendecentralized from the Food and Drug Administration such as supporting the Provincial Health Office and the Food and Drug Administration, providing knowledge to consumers and checking food product labels, etc. In addition, the study noted that an operation of the localgovernment in term of consumer health product protection was associated with the numbers of supportive personnel, budget, administrative policy, and availability of working group or department for consumer health product protection (p<0.05). Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration should (1) provide budget for media production to local authorities, (2) support training of the consumer health products to local authorities, and (3) coordinate with the Department of Local Government, Ministry of the Interior to drive local and regional policy on consumer protection on health products