Yudha Asy’ari, S.ST. Ft., S.K.M., and Ulfi Hida Zainita, S.K.M. have made the name of Universitas Indonesia (UI) proud at the global level through awards received from the international conference The 55th Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) 2024, held at BEXCO, Busan, South Korea. The two students of the Master of Public Health Study Program, Faculty of Public Health (FKM) were selected as the best oral presentations after beating 500 participants from various countries in Asia-Pacific. This was achieved thanks to the good way of presenting the presentation and the way of responding to questions during the question and answer session which were considered to meet the assessment criteria carried out by the chairperson of each topic.
During the presentation, Yudha, who won 1st Best Oral Presenter, presented an epidemiology topic titled “Analysis of the Factors Influencing Outcome in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in Jakarta.” He identified factors that contribute to better outcomes in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients during hospitalization.
“Spinal cord injury can cause morbidity and mortality. The damage can affect motor, sensory, mental, sexual, and economic aspects,” said Yudha. His research used an institutional cross-sectional study design that was used to analyze SCI patients treated at Fatmawati General Hospital between 2020 and 2021.
The results of his study showed that age, etiology, and the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale at admission all had a significant influence on how outcomes changed for SCI patients in Jakarta. “Therefore, we highlight the policies needed, such as the Ministry of Health regulations related to the prevention of infectious diseases that can cause SCI so that SCI cases are no longer found in patients,” said Yudha. Yudha’s presentation was assessed by Prof. Yoon Moonsoo from Yonsei University and Prof. Jeffery Stephen from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak as chairperson.
Meanwhile, Ulfi who won the best oral presenter chose the topic of urban-rural environment with the title of her presentation “A Nationwide Study: Climate Change Prevention Behavior among Indonesian Adolescents.” The study aims to identify climate change prevention behavior among Indonesian adolescents.
Ulfi said that climate change has the potential to threaten the basic rights of Indonesian adolescents. Therefore, climate change prevention behavior is fundamental to protect the lives of adolescents in the future.
In the results of the study conducted on adolescents from the areas of Surabaya, Banjarbaru, Makassar, Kupang, and Jambi, she said that climate change prevention behavior in adolescents is influenced by the level of parental education. Adolescents with parents with junior high school, high school, and higher education have very good behavior in preventing climate change compared to adolescents with parents with low education.
“Parental cooperation is needed to cultivate climate change prevention behavior at home as a complement to the education received by their children at school. Cultivating prevention behavior will build a healthy and safe environment for children’s lives in the future,” said Ulfi. Ulfi’s presentation was assessed by Prof. Victor Hoe from the Universiti of Malaya as the chairperson.
Dean of FKM UI, Prof. dr. Mondastri Korib Sudaryo, M.S., D.Sc., gave his appreciation to the students who succeeded in bringing the good name of FKM UI to the international arena. “Alhamdulillah, FKM UI is never-endingly proud of the achievements of its students. This time, FKM UI’s Master’s students, Yudha and Ulfi, made achievements in the international arena. With the many achievements of FKM students in the international arena, it proves that FKM UI has continuously succeeded in achieving internationalization efforts,” said Prof. Mondastri.
