Nutrition Education to Improve Family Nutrition Among Mothers in Pangkalan Village, Tangerang, Banten

Abstract

Malnutrition has been a problem in Indonesia over the past years. Many factors are known to affect the nutritional status of a child including the mothers’ knowledge regarding nutrition. The objective of this study was to improve the mother’s knowledge and attitude regarding family nutrition and to know which factor affects both. This program was conducted in Pangkalan Village, Tangerang in total of 4 sessions in May 2023. A total of 40 mothers participated in the whole program. Knowledge and attitude of the mothers were collected in the form of self-administered questionnaire before and after the education was given. Paired sample t-test and ANOVA were used to statistically assess the effectiveness of the program towards the knowledge and attitude of the mothers and which factors affected it. The program has successfully improved the mothers’ knowledge (58.9±15.3 to 82.4±13.1, p=0.001) and attitude (41.4±4.0 to 43.4±4.1, p=0.005). The number of the family members is found to affect the mothers’ knowledge before (p=0.018) education was given. While the BMI was found to affect the mothers’ attitude that is reflected in the mean score difference (p=0.021). The conclusion of this program is nutrition education do able to improve the mothers’ knowledge regarding nutrition, so it is necessary to improve the education not just to the mother but also to the girls to prepare them before pregnant as well as other caregivers to fully support the growth and development of the child.