ANEMIA DAN PRESTASI BELAJAR ANAK SEKOLAH DASAR

Abstract

Anemia has been becoming one of nutrition problems in Indonesia. The result of health fundamental research (RISKESDAS) in 2007 showed that the anemic prevalency of children (<14y) is 12,8%. The major cause of the anemia is iron deficiency. Furthermore, anemia can influence the cognitive development, behavior,and academic achievement of the children.The research was conductedto ana- lyze the different academic achievement of elementary school students who were anemic and who were not. The study was carried out based on cross sectional design. The number of sample for the research is 1143 elementary school students in Sukoharjo regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The Hb content was analyzed by applying the method of cyanmethemoglobin and the academic achievent was measured from the scores of three classes such as Science, Mathematics, and Indonesian.The age average of the subject is 9,82±1,09 years. The proportion of the male and the female students is almost the same, each group shows 48,3% and 53,6%. The average of Hb level is 12,53±0,89 g/dL. The proportion of the anemic children (cutoff <12mg/dL) is 22,8%. The score for Science of the anemic children is 3,14 point lower than (p=0,001) the normal children. Furthermore, the score of Mathematics of such children is 3,32 point (p=0,001) and Indonesian is 3,36 point lower (p=0,0002) than those who are not anemic. A significant difference happens towards the academic achievement between the children who are anemic and those who are not.