Objective To assess and compare knowledge, attitude, and prac-tice of underfive children stimulation of working and nonworkingmothers and to determine the correlation between knowledge, at-titude, practice of stimulation and mothers’ ages, educational level,number of children, and number of underfive children.Methods A cross-sectional study was performed in PT. IndofoodSukses Makmur, Tanjung Morawa, Medan from October 2002 un-til November 2002. Respondents were female workers havingunderfive children assigned as working mothers and wives of maleworkers (with similar inclusion criteria) assigned as nonworkingmothers. Selected respondents were interviewed using a struc-tured questionnaire. Sample size for each group was 58. Knowl-edge, attitude, and practice of stimulation were classified as good,less, and poor.Results There were 131 mothers interviewed. There were no sig-nificant differences in the ages, educational level, number of chil-dren, and number of underfive children. Good knowledge of stimu-lation of the working and nonworking mothers were 64.6% and97%, respectively; good attitude toward stimulation were 95.4%and 27.3%, respectively, while good practice of stimulation were58.5% and 22.7%, respectively. These differences were statisti-cally significant.Conclusion There were significant differences in knowledge, atti-tude, and practice of underfive children stimulation between work-ing and nonworking mothers. The knowledge of stimulation of theworking mothers was worse than that of the nonworking mothersand the attitude and practice of the working mothers were betterthan those of the nonworking mothers

A study was conducted in 1999 to determine nutritional status and hemoglobin level and their correlation among students in two primary schools in at Binjai, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Nutritional status was measured based on weight for age (W/A), height for age (H/A) and weight for height (W/H) according to NCHS criteria. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin level of less than 12 g/dl as measured with cyanmethemoglobin. Ninety-six children were available for analysis. We found that based on W/A, H/A and W/H, there were 23 (23%), 16 (17%), 11 (12%) of children suffered from protein energy malnutrition (PEM), respectively. There were 48 (50%) children with anemia. Children with PEM and anemia were 13 (59%), 9 (56%) and 9 (82%) respectively. In conclusion we found that not all of new students in those primary schools were healthy. There was correlation between anemia and PEM based on W/H measurement, but not when compared to W/A and H/A criteria.

Hepatitis B immunization gives protection to hepatitis B disease. The purpose of this study was to assess the immune response of hepatitis B immunization on infants with 0,2,9 and 3,4,9 months of age schedule. The study was performed cross sectionally at the Child Health clinic of Social Pediatric sub division H. Adam Malik Hospital from November 1st 1998 until February 28th 1999. The anti HBs responses were examined in blood by ELISA method one month after the third immunization at the Clinical Pathology Division FK-USU/H. Adam Malik Hospital. Protective immune response defined if the anti HBs level ³ 10 mIU/ml. Nutritional status of infants were grouped according to the NCHS classification. The result obtained were statistically tested by Fisher exact test and t-test, on the level of significance p < 0.05. Twenty six (86.7%) of the infants had protective immune response and there were no significant difference on the level of immune response among these two groups. Gender and nutritional status seems to have no influence on the anti HBs level. In Conclusion, hepatitis B immunization either with 0,2,9 or 3,4,9 months of age schedule obtained the same immune response.

Background Measurement of blood pressure is the most impor-tant tool for early detection of hypertension. There is an assump-tion that salt consumption of the population living at the seashoreis higher than that of those living on the hill area, and it would leadto higher blood pressure.Objective To find out whether there is any difference of bloodpressure between school-age children (6-13 years) living on thehill area (Brastagi subdistrict) and those living at the seashore area(Pantai Cermin sub district), North Sumatra.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in Brastagi andPantai Cermin from September to October 1995. The subjects weretaken by a simple random sampling method. The blood pressurewas measured based on recommendation of The Second TaskForce on Blood Pressure Control in Children 1987.Results The means systolic pressure in boys of 6 years of age aswell as in girls of 6,8,12 and 13 years, and the means of diastolicpressure in girls of 6,7,8,11 years were higher in Pantai Cermin(p<0.05). Blood pressure had significant positive correlations(p<0.001) with age, weight and height in both areas. Overall, hy-pertension was found in 117 (11%) out of 1065 children, 11.6%among girls and 10.6% among boys. On the hill and at seashorearea, hypertension was found in 10.2% and 11.8% of children re-spectively, which was not statistically different (p>0.05).Conclusion In children, there was no significant difference be-tween the prevalence of hypertension on hill and seashore area

Objective To compare the knowledge and attitude of working moth-ers (WM) and non-working mothers (NWM) concerning immuniza-tion in children.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on February, 18-23, 2002 at PT. Olagafood Industri, a noodle manufacture in TanjungMorawa, Medan. Subjects were female workers and non-workingwives of male workers who had under-five-year children. Motherswere interviewed using a questionnaire. Sample size for each groupwas 38. Degree of knowledge, attitude, and practice concerningimmunization were classified into good, insufficient, and bad.Results Mothers’ age, educational level, and children’s age werecomparable between the two groups. Ten WM and 8 NWM hadgood knowledge concerning immunization, which did not differ sig-nificantly (p>0.05). Good attitude toward immunization was foundin 25 WM and 12 NWM; it was a statistically significant difference(p<0.05). The practice of immunization showed similar result asthe attitude. The age of mothers had a significant relationship withthe degree of knowledge and practice, but not with attitude.Conclusion Degree of knowledge about immunization betweenWM and NWM are comparable, but differences exist in their atti-tude and performance