Abstract
<p>Having a Low Birth Weight (LBW) is one of the risk factors that may lead to stunting in children under five years old. An education program based on the Maternal and Child Health handbook (MCH) for the first 1000 days of a child’s life is one way to prevent the impact of stunting by improving the mothers’ knowledge and self-confidence to look after LBWB. The study is designed along the line of pre-post quasi-experimental research with a control group, involving 69 samples of mothers with LBWB that match the predetermined criteria. Twenty three of these mothers whose babies were cared for in the perinatology ward were provided with instructions from the MCH handbook, another group of 23 mothers received the same instructions with additional audiovisual media from a mobile application, and the remaining 23 mothers only received verbal instructions in the ward. The data were analyzed using the Paired t-test/Wilcoxon and Kruskall-Wallis tests. The analysis revealed that the MCH handbook based instruction provided a significant boost on the score of mother’s knowledge and confidence, before and after they have received the instructions, both in the group that received the MCH handbook based instruction (p&lt;0.001) and the group that received their instructions from a mobile application (p&lt;0.001). Additional instructions using audiovisual media from a mobile application also provided a significant boost to the knowledge score, and therefore the post-education score of the mothers in this group was higher than in the other two groups (p&lt;0.001). Mother’s knowledge of the provision of care for LBWB can therefore be optimized through education, discussion, and the use of technology as an instructional medium to complement the use of the MCH handbook.</p>
Highlights
The prevalence of children under five years old with stunted growth in Indonesia is quite significant at 30.8%(Kementerian Kesehatan RI BadanPenelitian dan Pengembangan, 2018).Stunting in children under five years old is a serious national issue in Indonesia, and even worse, the national figure has exceeded the threshold set forth by theWorld Health Organization (WHO)
Educational interventions using a flipchart with the additional material from the Maternal and Child Health handbook (MCH) handbook and audiovisual media from the mobile application were quite effective in improving the level of knowledge and self-confidence among mothers with LBWB; the group that only received verbal instructions during their stay in the ward did not show any increase in the level of knowledge or self-confidence
This study provides the evidence that the MCH handbook, as an educational tool, is quite effective in improving the level of knowledge among mothers in “the care of LBWB during the essential neonatal period after the birth of a child until they reach the age of two years”
Summary
The prevalence of children under five years old with stunted growth in Indonesia is quite significant at 30.8%(Kementerian Kesehatan RI BadanPenelitian dan Pengembangan, 2018).Stunting in children under five years old is a serious national issue in Indonesia, and even worse, the national figure has exceeded the threshold set forth by theWorld Health Organization (WHO). The prevalence of children under five years old with stunted growth in Indonesia is quite significant at 30.8%. Stunting in children under five years old is a serious national issue in Indonesia, and even worse, the national figure has exceeded the threshold set forth by the. A malnourished fetus will usually be born with a LBW condition and it may lead to stunted growth/stunting and eventually affect their cognitive development Stunting in a child under two years old is still responsive to treatment and can be preventable through intervention (Prendergast & Humphrey, 2014).Focused care for children with LBW as the high risk population during the first 1000 days of life must be maximized, one way is to optimize child health care using the MCH handbook as a guideline in providing care from the earliest age and promoting it continuously.
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