Abstrac
Introduction: Stunting is a nutritional problem in children, especially under the age of five. One of the pillars of the National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention is the national campaign and behavior change communication (Pillar 2). Behavior change communication at the village level involves the Family Facilitator Team who is the spearhead to increase community knowledge and awareness so as to trigger the adoption of positive behaviors to prevent stunting, especially in the 1000 first day of life period. Active participation in the Nutrition Training Based on Behavior Change Communication can increase the capacity of the Family Support Team as stunting counselors. Objective: To evaluate changes in nutritional knowledge of the family support team after conducting nutrition training based on behavior change communication. Research Methods: The study was conducted from September to December 2022 at 10 stunting locus in Malang City, East Java Province. This type of research is quantitative research using a quasi experiment design . The sample was all family assistance teams consisting of family planning cadres and integrated healthcare center cadres at 10 stunting locus in Malang city totaling 118 people. This nutrition training model uses learning in the form of focus group discussions. Statistical analysis used t-test for knowledge level data and Mc Necmar test for analysis of correct answers to each question. Research Results: The proportion of correct answers to 8 questions increased significantly after the training (p<0.05) and there were 2 questions related to breast milk storage and breast milk fluency that had not increased significantly (p>0.05). The average nutrition knowledge score before training was 50.42 ± 15.1 66.6 ± 17.79. At the end of the training, the nutritional knowledge score increased significantly p = 0.0001 with an increase of 16.6. The proportion of participants with high nutrition knowledge category increased from 5.1% to 33.9% and low category decreased from 32.2% to 11%. Conclusion: The educational model based on behavior change communication can significantly improve nutritional knowledge, so it can be applied to the approach of handling stunting individually.