Peer-reviewed article
Strengthening family nutrition literacy based on community nursing in stunting prevention in toddlers
Ari Setiawati, Indra Tri Astuti ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested a community nursing program in Indonesia aimed at preventing stunting in toddlers by improving family nutrition knowledge and feeding practices. Thirty families with toddlers participated in a five-stage program involving training on balanced nutrition, complementary feeding, dietary diversity, and growth monitoring, supported by community nurses and health workers. The program used digital educational materials and home visits to reinforce learning and encourage behavior change. Results showed improvements in family nutrition knowledge, feeding practices, and regular growth monitoring of toddlers.
Key points
- Program reduced low nutrition literacy levels and increased good literacy levels among participating families
- Improvements observed in toddler feeding practices following the intervention
- Increased compliance with regular growth monitoring among families
- Community nursing approach integrated education, mentoring, and digital technology for reinforcement
- Five-stage implementation model: socialization, training, technology application, mentoring/evaluation, and sustainability
Limitations
The document does not specify control or comparison groups, making it difficult to determine whether observed improvements were due to the intervention alone or other factors. Long-term follow-up data on actual stunting reduction outcomes are not reported.
Abstract
Stunting remains a major public health problem that threatens child growth and long-term human development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Family nutrition literacy plays a critical role in shaping feeding practices, health-seeking behavior, and early detection of growth problems among toddlers. This community service program aimed to strengthen family nutrition literacy through a community nursing based approach to support stunting prevention among toddlers. The program was implemented using a community-based method involving five stages: socialization, training, application of technology, mentoring and evaluation, and program sustainability. Activities were conducted with 30 families who had toddlers, supported by community nurses and health cadres. Training focused on balanced nutrition, appropriate complementary feeding, dietary diversity using local food sources, food hygiene, and interpretation of growth monitoring results. Simple digital educational media and mobile communication were used to reinforce learning and follow-up. Mentoring was provided through home visits and counseling sessions to support behavior change. The results showed improvements in family nutrition literacy, indicated by a reduction in low literacy levels and an increase in good literacy levels after the intervention. Positive changes were also observed in feeding practices and compliance with regular toddler growth monitoring. These findings indicate that strengthening family nutrition literacy through community nursing is an effective strategy to enhance family capacity in stunting prevention. Integrating education, mentoring, and appropriate technology within routine community nursing services can contribute to sustainable improvements in child nutrition practices. This approach has the potential to support long-term stunting reduction by empowering families as active agents in child health and nutrition care
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
Problem
Stunting in toddlers, particularly related to poor family nutrition literacy and feeding practices
- Intervention
- Community nursing-based family nutrition literacy program including training on balanced nutrition, complementary feeding, dietary diversity, food hygiene, and growth monitoring interpretation, supported by digital educational media, mobile communication, and home-based mentoring
- Population
- 30 families with toddlers in Indonesia, supported by community nurses and health cadres
Key finding
Reduction in low nutrition literacy levels and increase in good literacy levels after intervention