The rapid assessment of students health and nutrition in Indonesia

The rapid assessment of student health and nutrition provides an overview of the current situation of Indonesian children under the age of 19 years. The number of Indonesian children age 0-19 years in 2014 totals about 91.6 million. Of this total 24 million are age 0-4 years, 23.1 million age 59 years, 22.4 million age 10-14 years, and 22.0 million age 15-19 years. The analyses presented in this report are based on data from Riskesdas 2007, 2010, and 2013, the Population Census 2010, and also Susenas 2012. On average, 38.5 percent of children aged 0-6 years are sick for 3.9 days each month. Among school age children 7 to 18 years, the proportion of those who are sick starts with 28 percent for those of 7 years of age and declines to 17 percent for those who are 18 years of age. The most common of diseases affecting Indonesian children are diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, coughing, and pulmonary tuberculosis. The next concern for Indonesian children is the high incidence of malnutrition, starting with malnourishment among infants. The prevalence of low birth weight babies varies across provinces from the lowest rate of 7.2 percent to the highest rate of 16.9 percent. Some 76 percent of Indonesian babies are born with normal birth length of 48 to 52 cm; however 20.2 percent are born below the standard (<48 cm). Nationally 4.3 percent babies are born with a combination of small weight (<2500 grams) and stunting (<48 cm). The problem of malnutrition continues to the next ages, in 2013 only 36.8 percent of children under 5 were considered normal in physical development. According to Riskesdas 2013, the highest prevalence of types of malnutrition was stunting which amounted to 37.2 percent while 19.6 percent were classified as underweight, 12.1 percent wasting, and 11.9 percent overweight. Data from Riskesdas 2013 indicates that many Indonesian children chronically fail to grow normally starting from birth until they reach the age of 18 years. The mean height differences of Indonesian children compared to the 2007 WHO standards were 12.5 cm for boys and 9.8 cm for girls by the time they reach the age of 18 years. Stunting reflects chronic malnutrition among children and could be related to poverty as large differences between the poorest and richest quintiles in terms of the magnitude of stunting are found. Among the poorest the prevalence of stunting is almost two times higher than among the richest. The direct cause of malnutrition is associated with both unbalanced and insufficient food intake. In addition, infection and malnutrition have been always associated with malnutrition, and the high incidence of stunting in Indonesia could be because of hunger combined with infectious diseases. This situtation is worsened when immunization does not cover all children while growth monitoring is not always carried out. With all the problems facing Indonesian children, school health and nutrition initiatives become very important investments that can be implemented through the Usaha Kesehatan Sekolah (UKS). Bettering health and nutrition among school-age children is a strategic element in efforts to develop the community as a whole. The benefit from improving health and nutrition at s chool age will solve the intergenerational issue for the future.