The integrated intervention of early childhood education and stunting prevention program in increasing pre-school age children’s food intake

Introduction:Indonesia’s stunting rates are staggering, with more than 30% of stunted children. The government has conducted several stunting treatment programs, but the number of stunted children in Indonesia is still more than 20%. On the other hand, Indonesia has an education system for pre-school children. Stunting prevention can integrate with this system by providing nutrition education to pre-school children. The experiment aims to prevent stunting in children by integrating early childhood education and nutrition education to increase food intake.Methods:The population is pre-school-age children in Bantul Regency Yogyakarta. The research sample was 20 pre-school children given the program and 19 pre-school children in the control group. The integration program was given to children for three months (February - April 2021). The activities are education to improve children’s developmental abilities and provide nutrition-related education. The food intake measuring instrument used a food recall analyzed by the Nutri-survey software. Data analysis used central tendency and t-test. Results:The average food intake was still below the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), namely 1064 kcal in the intervention group and 1182 kcal in the control group. However, there was an increase in food intake in total daily food intake, breakfast intake, and dinner with a p-value of 0,001, 0,028, and 0,022, respectively, while at lunch intake, there was no difference with p-value 0,069.Conclusion:The integrated early childhood education and nutrition education programs can increase food intake for pre-school children. Therefore, this program is critical to be continued in all early childhood education systems in Indonesia as one of the stunting prevention programs.