The Effect Of Empowerment Upon The Food Intake And The Hemoglobin Level Of Pregnant Women In Coastal Areas

This research aimed to analyze the effect of an intervention in the form of empowerment
through counseling pregnant women with anemia on changes in food intake and the Hb level in
Percut Village of Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. This was quasi-experimental
research using the untreated control group design with pretest and posttest. The intervention was
given to 64 pregnant women, who were divided into 2 (two) groups. Group 1 was given the
intervention through empowerment, while Group 2 was the control group and did not receive any
empowerment. The empowerment was given in the form of counseling on the problem of anemia
in pregnant women conducted for 4 (four) meetings within 3 (three) months. The findings
suggested that the group with the empowerment intervention experienced an increase in their
food intake by 6,24 times higher than that of the group without the empowerment intervention.
The effect of such empowerment upon the changes in the hemoglobin level of pregnant women
showed an average increase by 3.89 times higher for the group with empowerment than than that
of the group without empowerment. Based on the multivariate analysis using multiple linear
regression, it was revealed that the variables with the most significant effect on the change in the
Hb level were empowerment of pregnant women, protein intake and iron intake. Furthermore, the
findings concluded that the empowerment of pregnant women would more effectively enhance
the food intake and the hemoglobin level of pregnant women, which in turn may prevent anemia
among these pregnant women.