Education of Nutrition and Food Technology Practice in Food Insecurity Group of 1000 First Day of Life Escalated Nutritional Concern

Abstract

There are still many nutrition problems in the food insecurity group of the 1000 First Day of Life (1000 FDL), which require intensive handling. Health report data from Jember Health Office showed that in 2015, there were 40 percent underweight and 23 percent stunted children. Efforts to improve the quality of nutrition for 1000 FDL groups can be done by providing knowledge and practice. The study objective was to determine if education of nutrition and food technology practice improved knowledge and attitude toward nutritional concern. The method used was to proactively educate on nutrition and food technology practices on diversification of baby’s meal in the target group and assessed changes by comparing the level of nutritional knowledge and attitude before and after receiving education by using questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and showed in percent or median ± Inter Quartile Ranges (IQRs). The results showed that there were significant differences (p<0.001) in the level of nutritional knowledge and attitude between before and after the education of nutrition and food processing technology. The knowledge level on 1000 FDL nutrition increased from enough to very good and the positive attitude level increased by 15.3%. N Gain levels were 0.6 and 0.5 for knowledge and attitude, showing that the impact is effective enough. It can be concluded that this method is quite effective to raise awareness of food insecurity group of 1000 FDL on nutrition and can be used as a model to help improving nutritional status of this group in other places.