Perceptions about mercury and lead in fish consumed in Lake Albert fishing communities Uganda

Figures & data

Figure 1. Demographic attributes of respondents in Lake Albert.

Table 1. Perceived benefits about fish consumption

Category	Attribute	Frequency	Percentage (%)	Sample n
Common benefits of fish consumption	Food	183	85.1	215
	Omega 3	5	2.3
	Good for heart	6	2.8
	Satisfaction	6	2.8
Fish commonly eaten at landing sites	Lates species	48	29.8	161
	Tilapia species	73	45.3
	Pelagic fish	25	15.5
Trend of fish consumption	Increased	5	2.5	198
	Decreased	189	95.5
	Normal	4	2.0

Table 2. Perceived risks associated with fish consumption

Category	Attribute	Frequency	Percentage (%)	Sample n
Reasons why fish is safe	Always good/no problems/fresh/sweet/no drug/natural	183	72.9	251
	Eaten them for years	17	6.8
Awareness about fish contaminants	No	182	76.2	239
	Yes	57	23.8
Common contaminants aware of	Chemicals	12	4.4	270
	Oil sips	13	4.8
Sources of the contaminants	People/Fishermen	20	7.3	273
	Oil sips	17	6.2
	Lake bed	21	7.7

Table 3. Perceived benefits and risks associated with weekly fish consumption

Attribute	χ^2	Degree	P Value
Education	28.9	2	< 0.0001
Awareness about benefits fish consumption	17.3	1	< 0.0001
Methods for preparation	37.1	5	< 0.0001
Parts consumed by children < 5 years	27.4	9	0.001
Parts consumed by children > 5 years	24.6	9	0.003
Parts consumed by Adults	67.6	8	< 0.0001
Preference as reason for fish consumption	25.4	1	< 0.0001
Safety of the fish	32.2	1	< 0.0001
Whether they have heard about fish contaminants	13.7	1	< 0.0001
Fishing as an income generation activity	7.0	1	0.008

Table 4. Model output for the factors related to household weekly fish consumption

Parameter	β	Std. Error	95% Confidence interval		P value
			Lower	Upper
(Intercept)	15.232	4.9925	5.447	25.018	0.002
Not aware about benefits	1.571	0.7676	0.066	3.075	0.041
Method of preparation Boiling	−9.548	4.0629	−17.511	1.585	0.019
Method of preparation frying	−10.733	4.1677	−18.901	−2.564	0.010
Adults seven in the family	7.194	3.0820	1.154	13.235	0.020
Not aware about monitoring organizations	−2.961	1.3595	−5.625	−0.290	0.029

Table

Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC)	420.036
Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC)	461.751
Consistent AIC (CAIC)	479.751