Home Care Intervention to Improve Nutritional Status of Severe Acute Malnourished (SAM) Children in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This study aims to evaluate effects of home care to improve nutritional status of acute malnourished children. Quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest control group design was carried out. The study was used 22 health centers in Yogyakarta. Samples were selected in intensive, strengthening and independent phases. Data collected included anthropometric measurement, and socio-demographic characteristics. Data were analyzed using chi square, t-test and linier mixed effect model. After three months, significant escalations were found in the anthropometric indicator among experimental groups. Then, the proportion of wasting in the experimental group was reduced to 56.7% (P=0.0001), whereas proportion of wasting in the control group showed no reduction (P=0.317). Three month of home care program was be able to improve the nutritional status of children.