Relationship of Mothers’ Parenting and Stunting in Toddlers Aged 12-36 Months in Bogor Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia in 2019

Abstract

Background: Stunting is a nutritional problem in toddlers who experience growth failure due to long-term

malnutrition so that the z-score is less than -2SD / standard deviation (stunted) and less than - 3SD (severely

stunted). According to the 2016 Global Nutrition Report, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia shows that

Indonesia ranks 108 out of 132 countries. Based on previous reports, Indonesia is included in 17 countries

that experience problems with nutrition, both excess and malnutrition. For the Southeast Asian region, the

prevalence of stunting in Indonesia is the highest in the world, after Cambodia. In addition to nutritional

factors, stunting is also caused by indirect factors, namely parenting. Therefore the aim of the study is to

assess the relationship between mothers’ parenting and stunting in toddlers aged 12-36 months in Bogor

Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia in 2019.

Method: Cross-sectional study design from primary data with a total sample of 500 toddlers aged 12-36

months taken in Bogor Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia in 2019. Stunting status was assessed based

on the TB / U indicator <-2 z-score, while categorizing variables Mothers’ parenting was done scoring.

Analysis of the relationship between mothers’ parenting with stunting in this study using multivariate cox

regression analysis and the magnitude of the effect expressed in the prevalence ratio (PR) with confident

interval (CI: 95%.)

Results: This study shows the prevalence of stunting in toddlers aged 12-36 months in Bogor Regency in

2019 of 39.2%. The result of cox regression test of the relationship between mothers’ parenting and stunting

showed PR 1.47 (95% CI: 1.09-1.97) meaning that mothers with poor parenting had a prevalence of stunting

toddlers 1.47 times higher than mothers with good parenting after controlling for the variable “Mothers’

Education”.

Conclusion: Mothers’ parenting is one of the factors that causes the high prevalence of stunting in toddlers

aged 12-36 months in Bogor Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia in 2019. The efforts to prevent stunting

are very important, one of which is based on mothers’ parenting factors, therefore it needs to be increased

education for expectant mothers, and especially adolescent girls as well as increasing knowledge of pregnant

women who have low education about parenting in toddlers in accordance with aspects of parenting that are

good and right. So that hopefully mothers have enough knowledge about parenting, and it can be applied

during parenting.