STUNTING is a major health problem for Indonesia, where currently, out of three children under five in Indonesia, there is one classified as stunting child. If this does not improve, then Indonesia is in danger of failing to take advantage of the 2030 demographic bonus and the 2045 golden generation.
Various clinical and epidemiological evidences show that if many Indonesian children under five are stunted, then in the next 10-20 years, this country’s productive age generation will have less cognitive abilities, low productivity abilities, and poor quality human resources.
Community health and occupational medicine practitioner from the Health Collaborative Center, Dr. dr. Ray W Basrowi, MKK when he was an expert resource at the Millennial Role Prevent Stunting BKKBN webinar, said that the use of digital resources and the role of local influencers for millennials would be more effective in building public awareness that could change the nation’s health behavior patterns.
He said, many small-scale community medical studies in several regions in Indonesia were able to prove that a synergistic approach between the use of digital media including social media and influencers known to the local community, was able to increase the knowledge of mothers and young parents to improve parenting styles, including parenting eating in the family. .
“This has enormous potential to help the government reduce and prevent cases of malnutrition and malnutrition in the first thousand days of life,” said Dr Ray.
The owner of the Instagram account @ray.w.basrowi said, several public health studies also said that the Millennial Generation is the new messengers for public health in the world, including in Indonesia.
According to him, in several regions in Indonesia, millennials have carried out various digital and technology-based innovations to educate young families to improve parenting and eating patterns, which are considered effective in helping prevent and overcome stunting.
“Some use gadgets with local heroes, use traditional youth jargons, even include the context of folklore and local consumption in online learning activities at the village level,” he said.
“For example, Healthy Village in Purwakarta, millennial network activities to prevent stunting in West Kalimantan, and even a local YouTube campaign in Kediri.”
According to Dr Ray, these activities have seen positive results, namely improving the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of millennial families to understand nutrition and stunting, as well as potentially breaking the chain of chronic malnutrition in the community.
“And most importantly this innovative approach of millennial children, already has epidemiological evidence that is even published in international scientific journals,” said Dr Ray.
So according to him, the government can use the millennial network to help reduce stunting rates in Indonesia, with an effective, evidence-based approach in this community.
For this reason, General Practitioners who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine Unsrat and earned a Doctorate in Medical Science at FKUI, invited the government, especially the BKKBN which had been appointed by President Jokowi, as the leading stunting prevention sector in Indonesia to embrace the results of innovations in nutrition and stunting prevention, namely millennial friends in Indonesia. throughout Indonesia.
“This is part of the 1000 Partners Movement for the First 1000 Days of Life, so that Indonesia can reduce stunting rates more quickly and more effectively,” said Dr Ray again.
