Comparison of Characteristics of Posyandu Services During the Covid-19 Pandemic Before and after Revitalization of Posyandu and Empowerment of Cadres through Integrated Program

¹ Health Polytechnic of the Ministry of Health Kupang, Indonesia
² Endenese Community for Infant and Child Health (MediASI)
³ Wageningen University, Netherland

^* Corresponding author: budianairwan89@gmail.com

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted maternal and child health services at the Integrated Health Center (Posyandu). Posyandu play central role for early detection of stunting when a child fails to grow to the proper height for his or her age inchildren under five (toddler). Currently Posyandu target to reach at least 80% attendance rate has also not met. Before pandemic, Posyandu has started to even become less attractive, as evidenced by the increasing number of community absenteeism at the Posyandu, from 25.5% (2007) to 34.3% (2018). Weak implementation of Posyandu and the lack cadres’ ability in carrying out their task as one of the factors for the low level of community participation. We aim to provide a pilot intervention to address these issues. The purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of Posyandu services during the Covid-19 pandemic and after Covid-19 pandemic with interventions given in the form of revitalizing posyandu and empowering cadres. This research method useds descriptive research with survey research design. The population in this study were 85 targeted children in four 4 Posyandus across Ende district. The sampling technique is simple random sampling. The results showed that before the intervention 78.8% of respondents received more than one type of health service and increased to 80% after the intervention. The visiting frequency to posyandu increased from 57.6% to 82.5%, There is a slight decrease in Posyandu’s attendance due to Pandemic, from 77.6% to 75%. It can be concluded that the intervention in the form of revitalizing posyandu and empowering cadres through an integrated program is one solutions to provide improvement in Posyandu services.