The Effect of Family and Community Leaders Partnership on the Improvement of Nutritional Status of Toddlers in Pekanbaru City

The lack of community participation in health affects the high number of maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) in Indonesia. Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) reported that in 2012 there was an increase MMR became 359/100, 000 KH and MMR 69/1000 KH (BPPSDM, 2014). Solutions or alternatives that could be done is empowering the family and the community. They should be educated and equipped with the basic knowledge and skills, especially in the efforts of Public health field. They were actively involved from planning to implementation and decision making. The role of community leaders is very necessary to reflect the aspirations of the needs of the community (Widyanto, 2014). This study aims to improve the nutritional status improvement program in the Pekanbaru city through innovative programs of partnerships between families and community leaders. Reinforced by the awareness of families to take advantage of health care facilities in monitoring the development and growth of toddlers, as an indicator of nutritional status improvement towards good nutritional status. Design research was Community Experiment Research in this case is used True Experiment Design. There were experimental group and control group, where the sampling was done randomly (Random Sampling) (Sugiyono, 2013) to 81 respondents. This research was combined (mixed methods) where quantitative research would be supported by qualitative research. Novelty in this study was the existence of community leaders partnering with families so they may be able to directly engage actively in activities in the promotion and implementation of the program to improve the nutritional status of toddlers, able to provide social support, adds the dimension of time, energy and foster independence for the family in an effort to improve the nutritional status of toddlers. The existence of the role and functions of community leaders became a role model that are close to the family is needed at this time. Community leaders are able to invite family with the ability and self-awareness in improving the health level of the family members. The changes in mother's visit to health services and nutritional status improvement of the research results of these studies showed the p value of less than0.05, statistically showed that there is a significant relationship.