Publication:

The effectiveness education of counseling of infant and young child feeding as intensive to improve counseling performance of Posyandu cadres in Bogor, Indonesia

Background Cadres have an essential role in providing counseling in integrated health service post (Posyandu). Poor capacity cadres may affect information delivery to the mothers/caregivers of under-five children. This study aimed is to assess the effect education of counseling of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) as intensive on the performance of the cadres in providing IYCF counseling.

Methods The study was a quasi-experimental with a pre-post test controlled group. The subjects were 55 Posyandu cadres in Ciomas sub-district Bogor. The intervention was training for cadres using education of counseling of IYCF as intensive carried out in the classroom and the field. Data on knowledge, attitude, motivation and counseling performance of cadres before and after the training were collected using a validated structured questionnaire. The paired and independent T-test was applied to analyze the difference before and after the intervention, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to analyze the factors that influence cadre counseling performance.

Results Mean score of knowledge (p=0.00), attitude (p=0.00), motivation (p=0.04), and counseling performance (p=0.00) of cadres in intervention group significantly increased. There is an increase in the score of performance counseling indicators for cadre in the quantity and quality after the education of counseling of IYCF as intensive. All of the indicators of the counseling performance of cadres influenced by educational models, knowledge, attitudes and attended training (p<0.05).

Conclusions Training of cadres using the education of counseling of IYCF as intensive effectively improved the knowledge, attitude, motivation and counseling performance of IYCF practice with indicators of quantity, quality, concern, and character. The capacity building of the cadres should improve continuously through the development of various methods which are more specific and applicable.