The Experience of School Health Unit’s Coordinator in NonCommunicable Diseases Prevention Education for Middle School Students

Abstract

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) in Indonesia is increasingly worrying. The increasing trend of NCD is followed by a shift in disease patterns, threaten from the elderly group to the productive age group and even increasing cases at the teenagers. It is important to know the programs of School Health Unit (Unit Kesehatan Sekolah/UKS) implement NCD (Diabetes & Hypertension) Prevention Education for Middle School Students. A qualitative phenomenological design is used. The Participants were the coordinators and officers of UKS at 11 secondary schools in Surabaya City and Sidoarjo Regency who taken by purposive sampling. Using semi-structured, in-depth face to face interviews to 22 participants. Three 3 participants had educational backgrounds of nurses, and the remainders are classroom teachers with additional duties as coordinators. All participants were women with age 28-45 years. The themes identified in the initial coding process were then grouped into 6 main themes. The theme of implementing promotive and preventive efforts in the UKS program consists of 6 sub-themes, namely the implementation of the UKS program, the implementation of health education, the facilities provided at UKS, the contribution of the UKS program in preventing NCD, supporting factors, and inhibiting factors. All schools have not carried out educational activities in preventing NCD. They stated that these efforts need to be done because currently most students behave unhealthy which is a triggering factor for the incidence NCD. Schools actually have supporting factors including health screening activities, existing UKS facilities, and support from stakeholders. They believe that all the supporting factors that have been able to support the implementation of prevention education on prevention of NCD, if the government makes a policy of the NCD prevention program part of the UKS's goal.