Pendampingan Ibu Balita Melalui Model Edukasi Gizi Berbasis Aplikasi Digital untuk Pencegahan Stunting di Kabupaten Brebes

Abstract

Stunting is a chronic nutritional problem that requires continuous intervention, especially in priority areas such as Brebes Regency. Conventional nutrition interventions often fail in the aspect of sustained child growth monitoring. This community service research aims to test the effectiveness of the Digital Application-Based Nutrition Education Model (Si Penting), which is the result of collaboration between Universitas Harapan Bangsa and Universitas Muhammadiyah Brebes, in strengthening caregiver capacity. The activity was conducted in Bantarkawung Sub-district, involving 45 caregivers of toddlers (children age 6–24 months). The design used was a One-Group Pre-test Post-test Design. The intervention included face-to-face nutrition education followed by training and mentoring on the use of the Si Penting Digital Application for two weeks. Data analysis utilized the Paired Sample T-Test to compare knowledge and attitude scores. The results showed a significant increase in the average nutrition knowledge score from 61.85 (pre-test) to 89.20 (post-test) with a significance value p=0.000. A significant increase was also observed in caregiver attitude scores (p=0.001). This intervention model was proven effective in transferring knowledge and encouraging attitude change, supported by an adoption rate of the Si Penting Application reaching 95.6% (43 out of 45 participants). It is concluded that the Digital Application-Based Nutrition Education Model successfully strengthened caregiver capacity in nutritional self-monitoring, and is thus recommended for replication as an efficient and sustainable stunting prevention program innovation in Brebes Regency.