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There is currently limited data available on the Saudi population’s adoption of nutritional guidelines or on other factors influencing food purchasing behaviors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of nutrition label use, explore factors that could influence food choices during grocery shopping and evaluate the association of these factors with the sociodemographic characteristics of mothers.

Mothers were recruited at a community event. They were requested to complete a questionnaire that assessed social and lifestyle characteristics as well as product features that influence food choices during grocery shopping.

The study included 157 mothers. The prevalence of label reading was high with 69% of participants always or mostly reading labels pre-purchase. Features that were most likely to “always” influence purchase choices included: product healthfulness (57.3%), children’s preference (45.9%), specific needs of a family member (38.9%). The feature “awareness campaigns and workshops” was found to be associated with both low and high-income groups. There was a poor understanding of what the “light” food label meant with only 37.6% answering correctly.

Further research is needed with a higher sample size with diverse sociodemographic characteristics.

Saudi mothers are influenced by product healthfulness as well as children’s and family members’ needs when grocery shopping. There was a high prevalence of reading nutrition labels prepurchase. These findings can inform future public health policy on the main drivers for food purchasing decisions and the need for educational initiatives in Saudi Arabia.

The present research collates factors influencing food choices

The aim of this paper is to assess the safety level of construction sites in Afghanistan following the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) safety practices and compare this with other construction sites in Afghanistan that follow local government safety guidelines. The USACE oversees and funds many infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and these projects are supposed to follow the same standards implemented in the USA, including safety standards. The local government of Afghanistan also funds infrastructure projects in Afghanistan; however, these do not follow USACE best practices. This research explores the question of whether the USACE standards provide a safer construction site. The effect of the USACE standards on safety practices in construction projects is also investigated in the Afghanistan construction industry.

A literature review and other safety checklists were used to develop a safety checklist containing 104 items (questions) in 17 categories. Subsequently, the checklist was used to assess the safety performance of 57 construction projects (25 USACE projects, and 32 governmental projects). Utilizing quantitative analysis, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) and Mann–Whitney tests were carried out for correlation and statistical disparity between USACE and governmental projects.

The safety performance level of Afghan government projects was found to be poor in relation to other developing countries, while in USACE projects it was excellent. In addition, fire prevention, safety administration, PPE, heavy equipment, and handling and storage of materials for all types of contractors were the most overlooked aspects of Afghan Government projects.

The findings clearly demonstrate the deficiencies in construction sites observed during this study and also support the adoption of USACE standards in Afghanistan projects.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the safety of construction sites in Afghanistan. The study also demonstrates the benefits of adopting international standards (USACE) to improve the safety of construction sites in a developing country such as Afghanistan. The findings provide evidence of the safety of the Afghanistan construction industry compared to other developing countries. These findings will contribute to the Afghan Government's efforts to track injury statistics.