Empowering adolescents as peer-educators for early prevention of non-communicable diseases: Through existing 'POSBINDU' program in Indonesia.

Abstract

Human lifestyles, including sedentary activities, obesity, and smoking, are associated with a high risk of non-communicable diseases that are a leading cause of death globally. Accordingly, health promotion should be done as early as possible in the adolescent period. This study explores the efficacy of a peer-educator program in promoting the healthy habits of adolescents, via an existing Indonesian community initiative program called 'POSBINDU' (Integrated Counseling Post), led by the general practitioners. Twenty-week 'experiential learning' approach with mixed-method was designed to: 1) Train 10 GP trainers, 2) Recruit and observe the 10 group-1 and 50 group-2 peer-educators in a high school; 3) Develop modules on health lifestyles by the GPS and peer-educators, and 4) Implement the POSBINDU program at the high school. Both GPs and students' perceptions significantly increased before to after the intervention (<i>p</i> > 0.05). The participants also expressed they experienced increased comprehension of NCDs and the importance of healthy habits. The existing POSBINDU community's initiative program can potentially be improved by appropriate interventions to empower school students towards better healthy habits to prevent the early progression of NCDs.