PJBL Health Communication: Hypertension Prevention Efforts through Blood Pressure Checks and Nutrition Education

FIKES UPNVJ - Depok, November 26, 2024 - In order to increase public awareness of the importance of preventing hypertension, students of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional "Veteran" Jakarta have carried out community service activities entitled "Healthy Life, Relaxed Pressure: Proper Nutrition, Hypertension Released!" at the Mutaalimin Limo Foundation from 08.00 to 11.40 WIB. This activity is part of the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) for the Health Communication course. Where the implementers of the activity are students from the S1 Nutrition study program, S1 Nursing and are guided by the lecturer in charge of the Health Communication Course, namely Adelia Suryani, S.K.M., M.K.M.

This activity involved 19 housewives from the foundation environment as participants. The event consisted of several activities, starting from the opening, the main event consisting of measuring blood pressure and presenting material on healthy eating patterns and closing consisting of distributing consumption and taking photos together. During the activity, pre-test and post-test sessions were also carried out to measure the success of the implementation of the activity.

The first activity carried out after the opening was blood pressure measurement carried out by undergraduate students of Nursing. The results showed that 3 out of 12 participants had high blood pressure. This examination is a form of early detection of hypertension so that further preventive measures can be taken, such as regulating diet, exercising regularly, maintaining ideal body weight and having enough sleep.

The activity carried out after blood pressure measurement was the presentation of material on healthy eating patterns which are one way to prevent hypertension. The presentation of this material was carried out by undergraduate students of Nutrition FIKES UPN "Veteran" Jakarta. The results of the pre-test and post-test from 19 participants showed that 68.4% of them experienced an increase in understanding of the hypertension material and healthy eating patterns that had been given. This can be seen from the results of the pre-test and post-test which showed an increase in the very good knowledge category of up to 10.6%.

This PjBL is a valuable experience for Nutrition and Nursing students, because it not only hones technical skills such as blood pressure checks, but also students' skills in communicating and providing health education to the community. With the support of various parties, this activity is expected to improve the quality of life of the community and become one of the steps in preventing hypertension in Indonesia.