Fathers Involvement in Handling Growth Disorder of Children’s Family Members: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: SDGs mandate all parties to eliminate the problem of malnutrition jointly. These problems include growth disorders (stunting and wasting), breastfeeding, and anemia. In the household setting, growth disorder is not solely the mother's responsibility but also the partner, the father. This review aims to find out fathers' involvement in the treatment of growth disorders. Methods: 813 articles published in 2017-2022 were obtained from 6 electronic databases such as Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. The keywords combined with Boolean operators to find literature, namely (father OR paternal) AND (involvement OR engagement OR rule) AND (Stunting OR Growth disorder). The inclusion criteria were in English and described father roles in handling stunting in children. 10 articles met the inclusion criteria and are relevant for review. Articles were analyzed using charting and narrative analysis. Results: Based on a review of several articles, there are four dimensions of father involvement in handling growth disorder, namely instrumental support, instrumental support, emotional support, and appraisal support. Strategies to increase father involvement relate to internal and external barriers. The way to increase father involvement is to spread information about the importance of children's health to fathers in various media, remove the negative stigma about gender equity, maximize the presence of fathers with children, active fathers support wife's needs, broaden cultural and community sensitivity to involve father. Conclusions: Fathers' role is crucial in handling nutrition and growth disorder in children. Future growth disorder management strategies need to involve fathers and mothers (gender equity) by considering the identified barrier factors and potential facilitators in the community .