EFFECTIVENESS OF CADRE TRAINING IN IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE ON THE COMPLETION OF THE ELDERLY HEALTH BOOK IN SIDOARJO

Primary healthcare in Indonesia faces challenges due to an ageing population since 2021. An elderly health book, published by Ministry of health, is an essential tool for recording, monitoring, and following up elderly health status. However, Health cadres have not yet fully understood how to fill in and use the book, resulting in suboptimal data quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cadre training to complete the Elderly Health Book (before and after training) in Sidoarjo Regency. A quasi-experimental study with a one-group pre-test and post-test design was conducted among 50 elderly health cadres which were selected purposively. Their knowledge to fill the health book were collected using a 20-item questionnaire. Knowledge of health cadres increased significantly after the training (14.02 ± 3.12 vs. 18.96 ± 1.54; p < 0.05 Wilcoxon signed-rank test). In term of post-test, there were no difference between cadres who had and those who had not experienced to fill out the health book (Mann-Whitney U test; p = 0.215). This study demonstrated that training was effective in improving cadres' knowledge for completing the Elderly Health Book. Therefore, regular and interactive training sessions are recommended to sustain cadres' competencies and improve the quality of elderly health data.