IMPLIKASI PENDIDIKAN KESEHATAN BERBASIS WHATSAPP TERHADAP DIABETES AWARENESS PADA SISWA SMA DI KOTA PADANG

The prevalence of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among adolescents tends to increase. In addition to genetic factors, an unhealthy adolescent lifestyle triggers diabetes mellitus. A previous study found that lack of adolescent knowledge is related to risk factors for DM. Prevention is needed to reduce the prevalence and reduce the risk of DM. Whatsapp as one of popular social media has some potential to be used in education in order to increase awareness and knowledge of adolescents related to diabetes. This study aims to examine WhatsApp based health education on the awareness of high school students in Padang. This study is quantitative with a pre-experimental design that is one group pretest posttest. This research was conducted in three state high schools in Padang with 165 samples. Sampling is used pusposive sample with inclusion criteria has one of the risk factors which is having a family history or having a BMI ≥ 25 kg / m². T-test was used to see differences in average Diabetes Awareness and attitude components and Wilcoxon-test was used to see differences in the components of knowledge and practice. The results showed there was a relationship with health education using WhatsApp on Diabetes Awareness of students (p = 0,000). The results also showed the health education of the components of knowledge, attitudes and actions (each p value = 0,000). The Whatssapp based education program can be considered as media in health education programs against especially for adolescents to increase their awareness for early disease prevention