Effectiveness of Infant Massage on Increasing Baby Weight and Length in Nosarara Community Health Centers during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: One indicator of the health of infants and toddlers is an increase in body weight and length/height following age. This fact has attracted the attention of many parties trying to find solutions and innovations, including re-examining the local wisdom of Indonesian culture, which is believed to have been passed down from generation to generation to help increase the baby’s weight and length. AIM: This study aims to determine the effectiveness of baby massage on increasing a baby’s weight and length in the work area of the Nosarara Community Health Center, Palu City. METHODS: This type of research was a quasi-experimental research design with pre- and post-test control group design. The population in this study were all infants aged 0−11 months in the Nosarara Health Center’s working area, involving 60 infants; 30 were the intervention group for a month of massage and 30 were the control group. The sampling technique in this study used the purposive sampling method based on certain considerations. The statistical test used was parametric and the paired t-test. RESULTS: The age of the mother in this study is mostly 28−30 years old, namely, 23.3% with an education level of Senior High School at 63.3% and the mother’s work is Mother’s work, which is 95%. Then, the age of most children aged 4−7 months, namely, 38.3%. There is a difference in children’s weight before and after the intervention where the initial weight is 5.8 kg–6.43 kg after 1 month of intervention. There are differences in the child’s body length before and after the intervention where the initial body length was 56.97 cm–60.03 cm after 1 month of intervention. CONCLUSION: This study showed no significant difference in the increase in body weight and length of infants between the intervention and the control groups. The average increase of massaged infants was 600 g in weight and 3.01 cm in length. Those who were not massaged were 400 g in weight and 1.26 cm in length.