The Role of Mother Cares Applications (MOCA) towards Knowledge and Parenting Skills in Stimulating Growth

Abstract

Baby's brain experiences the fastest growth and development at the age of 0-6 months. Developmental abnormalities due to lack of stimulation during this period would have caused long-term consequences. Mother's knowledge and skill in stimulating would determine the growth of baby. Fifty-three percent of adults have smart phones. Smartphone apps can be used to aid medical activities such as health promotion. Application mother cares (MOCA) is a guide in the Smartphone in the form of animation to allow parents to stimulate the growth of toddlers. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of MOCA towards knowledge and skills of parents in stimulating the growth of infants aged 0-6 months.True experiment was used in the study design. Furthermore, pre-posttest with control group design was conducted in June-July 2016 in the work area of Public Health Center (Puskesmas) Ibrahim Adjie, Bandung, with 60 respondents based on proportionate stratified of random sampling. Statistical analysis used was Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon test (p <0.05). There were significant differences of the scores of knowledge and parental skills in giving stimulation between intervention and control groups with p values for each of 0.003 and 0.008. The conclusion is MOCA application plays a role to increase knowledge and skills of parents to stimulate the growth of infants aged 0-6 months.