Title: Establishment of the Peer Counselor as an Effort to Conquer Nutritional Problems in Teenagers
Authors: Setyo Prihatin, Sri Noor Mintarsih, J Supadi
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i11.89
Abstract
Background: Health problems in teenagers can start at a very young age. Residuals of infection and malnutrition during childhood will become a burden when they grow up. Risk factor for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is more common for teenagers of 15 until 19 years old. Besides CFS, teenagers are also vulnerable to suffer from anemia problems. The school health programme has not empowered students to overcome this problem. One of the models of empowerment of students that can be developed is to form a peer counselor.
Methods: Research was conducted in the working area of Leyangan Health Center, Semarang Regency, Indonesia. The research design was quasi-experiment with nonrandomized pre and post-test group design. The sampling process was done through random sampling on female students. The selection of the control group and treatment group were randomly assigned. The data collected was knowledge of nutrition and health and also skills in counseling before and after the training.
Results: It was found that there was an increase in knowledge before and after the training for peer counselors with a p-value of 0.000. There was also a significant difference in attitude before and after the training which is shown by the p-value of 0.000.On anthropometric skills, significant results were obtained on how to measure body weight and height, with a p-value of 0.000.
Conclusion: Training of peer counselors has proven to be able to improve knowledge, attitude, and skills of the teenagers. It is recommended to increase peer counselor activities through improving facilities and socialization to all students.
Keywords: Knowledge, Skills, Teenagers, Peer Counselors.
