Preventing Stunting and Increasing Efficacy of Mothers of Toddlers, FIK UI Trained Health Cadres in Bali
Stunting is a nutritional problem that has received special attention from the government. Quoting stunting.go.id, based on the results of the Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) 2021 conducted by the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, the stunting prevalence rate in Indonesia in 2021 is 24.4%, or has undergone a 6.4% decline from 30.8% in 2018.
Currently, the government has a target to reduce prevalence by 14% in 2024. This is certainly a special challenge for health workers in Indonesia, which is also faced by the Indonesian Pediatric Nurses Association (IPANI) of Buleleng Regency, Bali, which is one of the Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Indonesia (FIK UI) partners.
“Stunting is a condition of failure to grow which has implications for the next generation, life, productivity, as well as Indonesia’s economy, productivity, and economic progress,” said Deputy Regent of Buleleng I Nyoman Sutjidra. This condition made him ask each village to budget specifically for health care to prevent stunting cases.
Based on data from Buleleng Health Office, there are still children with malnutrition and underweight toddlers. A total of 455 toddlers were weighed with a body weight that was not appropriate for their age, and there were 38 children in Buleleng who were stunted.
Responding to this need, a community service team initiated by Head of the Department of Pediatric Nursing FIK UI Dr. Nur Agustini, S.Kp., M.Sc., in collaboration with IPANI in Bali region, provided education for 50 cadres in Buleleng district, especially in the working area of Public Health Center of Sawan I. “Toddlers who are detected as stunted need special attention because the impact of chronic malnutrition on children can disrupt their growth and development,” said Nur Agustini.
The person in charge of the nutrition program at the Public Health Center of Sawan I, Luh Komang Yuliasih, S. Tr. Gz., said, “Public Health Center of Sawan I has several programs to improve nutrition, which are nutritional outreach and counseling for individual or group and monitoring the nutritional status of toddlers through the Integrated Healthcare Center once a month. However, these programs have not been running effectively because outreach and counseling have not been carried out by the cadres yet.”
Luh Komang Yuliasih welcomed the UI community service team who provided education for 50 cadres at the Public Health Center of Sawan I. “After the cadre training, there was an increase in the implementation of the Integrated Healthcare Center by the cadres. Before attending the cadre training, they could not conduct outreach or counseling at all. Yet, after participating in the cadre training, they are able to apply it at their respective healthcare center,” she said.
The FIK UI community service team provided material training on two topics entitled “Early Detection of Child Growth and Development” and “Infant and Child Feeding”. After the materials were given, the team held practical simulations on how to check the Growth and Development of Children and how to pick food ingredients according to their nutritional content and texture for feeding infants and children. “Then in the following month the cadres conducted growth and development checks on children and counseling for mothers of toddlers under the supervision of the community service team and partners in charge of the nutrition program at the Public Health Center of Sawan I,” said Nur Agustini.
A month after the training, an evaluation was conducted on 50 cadres participating in the training with the results obtained that 100% of the cadres are able to examine the growth and development of children and provide counseling to mothers of toddlers, and 80% experienced an increase in knowledge based on the results of the pre-tests and post-tests. The results of weighing that the cadres carried out for 100 toddlers are that 77% of toddlers have gained weight, 9% of toddlers have their body weight remained constant, and 14% of toddlers have experienced weight loss. Mothers of toddlers who received cadre services and guidance were 100% satisfied with satisfaction scores of 4 and 5 based on the 0-5 range.
“Mothers of toddlers feel that the health cadres are friendly towards mothers and toddlers, convey the purpose of the examination, carry out the examination well, speak politely, explain the results of the examination, explain the follow-up that the mothers must do, and give compliments to the mothers if they are nurturing the toddlers with good care,” said Yuli, one of the mothers of toddlers who received the service.
Luh Komang Yuliasih hopes that in the future the same training activities can be carried out for all 249 cadres in the Public Health Center of Sawan I area. It is hoped that after participating in the training from the FIK UI Community Service Team, the cadres can increase their activities in educating mothers of toddlers.
Author: Public Relations of FIK| Editor: Mariana
