Palm Date Increase Adolescents Hemoglobin Levels

Abstract

Nutritional deficiencies have an impact on the nutritional problems of adolescents as one of the groups prone to suffer from anemia. WHO states 25-40% of adolescents suffer from anemia and in Indonesia more than 57%. Palm dates have the main nutritional content of glucose and various vitamins that the body needs. Every 100 grams of dates contained 50 IU of vitamin A; 0.4 mg of vitamin C; 0.09 mg thiamine; 0.10 mg riboflavin, 2.20 mg niacin; nicotinic acid and iron so that it can be used for anemia. The research method uses analytic with sample of 30 adolescents with simple random sampling technique. Subjects who met the inclusion criteria were measured for Hb levels, then observed until 1.5 months. Giving palm date done to adolescents who have anemia by eating 2 dates a day for 21 days. After intervention (posttest), the effectiveness of palm dates is evaluated hemoglobin levels. Testing the difference in the value of pretest and posttest using the Paired Sample-test. Probability value or Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.002 <0.05. This means that significant differences given of palm dates on the pretest and posttest, and concluded that palm date increase in adolescent’s hemoglobin levels.