HUBUNGAN LAMA PERAWATAN DENGAN STATUS GIZI SETELAH PERAWATAN DI THERAPEUTIC FEEDING CENTER (TFC) PADA ANAK GIZI BURUK DI KABUPATEN BOALEMO, PROVINSI GORONTALO

One of nutritional problems in Indonesia is severe undernutrition. To overcome this problem the governnment set a target that all severe undernourished children should get optimal care to recover their nutritional status. One of the treatments for the severe undernourished children is a treatment in therapeutic feeding center (TFC). The succesfull of recovery of nutritional status in TFC was influenced by several factors, such as the lenght of care . This article presents the information about the association between lenght of care and nutritional status of children after treatment in TFC Tani-Nelayan, Boalemo District, Gorontalo Province in 2008-2012. This paper use quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was gathered from patient register (in and out)in TFC during 2008-2012 (180 respondent), while the qualitative data was obtained from in depth interview (IDI) with patient’s family and TFC officers (7 informants). The quantitative data analysis was done with univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. The qualitative data analysis presented the excerpts answers from informants. Logistic regression analysis showed that children who received treatment less than 30 days have possibility or risk of 2,78 times to keep suffering from severe undernutrition compare to children who received treatment more than 30 days. The IDI results showed that factors caused premature leave of treatment in TFC on severe undernourished patients were concerns regarding caring the other children, household matters, and economic reason. Therefore, improvement of mother’s and family’s knowledge on the importance of total caring for severe undernourished children in TFC is very crucial, so that there is no mothers or families leave the TFC before the treatment of severe undernourished children perfectly executed