The Effect of Peer Education on Knowledge and Attitudes about Anemia and Chronic Energy Deficiency of Adolescent Girls at Percut Village, Indonesia

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Maya Fitria, Heru Santosa, Zulhaida Lubis, Rahayu Lubis

Abstract

Adolescent nutrition is a very important need in addition to physical development, cognitive also for the development of reproductive organs. If young women experience nutritional problems such as anemia and chronic energy deficiency (CED) this will have an impact on their future condition when becoming a prospective mother in their pregnancy at risk of experiencing prolonged anemia and having an impact on giving birth to premature babies and low birth weight, this will contribute to stunting in Indonesia. It is necessary to provide education to increase the knowledge and attitudes of adolescents about anemia and chronic energy deficiency who are trained to become peer educators so that they will become agents of change in their village to be able to provide education to other peers to reduce the incidence of anemia and CED in adolescent girls.


Method. This type of research is quasi-experimental, with separated sample pre and post-test with control group design. The purpose of this study was to see the effect of peer education on knowledge and attitudes about anemia and CED in adolescent girls with a sample of 25 people in each treatment and control group, then each peer educator educated 5 peers so that the total was 150 samples. Using paired t-test and unpaired t-test.


Results. There was a difference in the mean value of knowledge and attitudes about anemia in the treatment group (p=0.0001) while there was no difference in the mean in the control group (p>0.05). There was a difference in the mean value of knowledge and attitudes about CED in the treatment group (p=0.0001) while for the control group it was not significant (p>0.05). There was an effect of providing education on nutrition material about anemia and CED on knowledge and attitudes of adolescent girls, where the mean value was higher in the treatment group than in the control group (p=0.0001). There was a difference in the mean value of knowledge (p=0.0001) and attitudes (0.0001) about anemia and CED in the peer group, meaning that the education provided by the peer educator to peers was very effective in increasing their knowledge and attitudes.


Conclusion. It is hoped that the support of the local government in providing facilities such as facilities and infrastructure to launch peer education activities in Percut Village is expected. It is necessary to cooperate with all relevant parties to prevent the incidence of anemia and CED in adolescent girls.

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