Hubungan Tingkat Pengetahuan Orang Tua tentang Nutrisi terhadap Status Gizi Balita di Puskesmas Medan Johor

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition is a condition of nutritional imbalance that affects body function. The Ministry of Health states that 21.6% of children under 5 years old experience malnutrition. According to WHO, nutritional status is influenced by the relationship between nutritional intake and body needs. This imbalance can lead to underweight or overweight conditions, micronutrient deficiencies, and diet-related non-communicable diseases. Objective:. Methods: This study is an observational analytical study using a cross-sectional approach by measuring dependent and independent variables at one point in time. The level of knowledge was assessed using the categories of less, moderate, and good, while the nutritional status based on Weight/Height was evaluated using WHO standards. The sampling method applied was a consecutive sampling technique, resulting in 103 samples of children under 5 years old at the Medan Johor Health Center during the period of October - November. Results: The results of this study show that the majority of parents have an undergraduate/diploma level of education (43.6%), and most of the toddlers studied were female (52.4%), with the majority aged 0–1 years (40.8%). The analysis of the relationship between the level of parental knowledge about nutrition and the nutritional status of toddlers according to BB/TB revealed a pvalue > 0.05 in all categories. These results indicate no significant relationship (H0 is accepted).Conclusion: There is no significant relationship between the level of parental knowledge about nutrition and the nutritional status of toddlers at the Medan Johor Health Center. However, the majority of parents with a moderate level of knowledge have children with good nutritional status. This indicates that the nutritional status of children is influenced by multifactorial factors. There is no significant relationship between the level of parental knowledge about nutrition and the nutritional status of toddlers at the Medan Johor Health Center. However, the majority of parents with a moderate level of knowledge have children with good nutritional status. This indicates that the nutritional status of children is influenced by multifactorial factors.