Background: Adolescent overweight and obesity (AOO) is a global public health problem and risk for noncommunicable diseases. Understanding context-specific risks is crucial for interventions. Objective: Determine the prevalence of AOO in the Indonesian National Health Survey (INHS) 2013, assess the 5-year trend from 2013 to 2018, and identify risks. Methods: We selected adolescents aged 10 to 19 years (n = 174 290) from the INHS 2013 and used hierarchical logistic regression to identify gender-specific risks for those aged 15 to 19 years (n = 77 534). Change in AOO was assessed by comparison to INHS 2018 reports. Results: The national AOO prevalence increased over 5 years by 48% in young adolescents (13-15 years) and 85% in older ones (16-18 years). High prevalence areas included the urban location of Jakarta (20.9%) and the remote rural region of Papua (19.4%). Overall, AOO risks were being sedentary, male, lower education, married, younger adolescent, and school enrollment, with urban residence and higher wealth being persistent risks for all analyses. Data for depressive symptoms were available for older adolescents whose additional risks were being sedentary, depressive symptoms, and high-fat diet. Male risks were being sedentary and lower education, and female risks were being married, depressive symptoms, high-fat intake, and lower education. Higher intake of fruits and vegetables and fewer sweets did not protect against AOO if a high-fat diet was consumed. Conclusions: Adolescent overweight and obesity in Indonesia is rapidly increasing, especially in older adolescents and males, and with gender-specific risks. Customized multisectoral interventions to identify strategies for lifestyle change are urgently needed.

Purpose.: To examine the effectiveness of multilevel promotion on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) duration and prevalence. Design.: A pretest-posttest control group design, quasi-experiment. Setting.: Two public health centers in the Demak District, Central Java, Indonesia. Subjects.: A total of 163 families were enrolled, including pregnant mothers, fathers, and grandmothers. Intervention.: The multilevel promotion of EBF was conducted at the subdistrict, village, family, and individual levels. This was a complex intervention that modified breastfeeding determinants, integrated multidisciplinary partnerships, and involved community leaders (i.e., voluntary health workers, traditional birth attendants, Muslim scholars, and heads of villages). The strategies applied were advocacy, training, media, and home visit counseling. Measures.: EBF duration and prevalence. Analysis.: Survival analyses, Cox proportional-hazard model. Results.: The duration of EBF increased after the multilevel promotion. The median postintervention duration in the intervention group was 18 weeks compared with .1 week in the control group (p < .001). The prevalence of EBF at 1, 8, 16, and 24 weeks for the intervention versus control groups was 75.3% vs. 28.0%, 64.2% vs. 14.6%, 50.6% vs. 8.5%, and 37.0% vs. 3.7%, respectively (p < .001). Mothers in the control group were three times more likely to stop exclusive breastfeeding per unit of time than were mothers in the intervention group (adjusted hazard ratio 3.01; 95% confidence interval: 1.96, 4.63). Conclusion.: Multilevel promotion can prolong the duration and increase the prevalence of EBF.

Background Stunting, an indicator of restricted linear growth, has become a primary measure of childhood undernutrition due to its persistent high prevalence globally, and importance for health and development. Although the etiology is recognized as complex, most analyses have focused on social and biomedical determinants, with limited attention on psychological factors affecting care and nurturing in the home. We assessed whether the psychological distress of parents is related to child linear growth and stunting, and documented the associated risk factors, and examined the relationship between parental distress and behavioral and other risk factors for stunting. Methods We used data from the Indonesia National Health Survey 2013, including 46,315 children 6-59 months of age. Multivariate linear, logistic, and multilevel multinomial logistic regression, using survey weights, were used to assess the relationship between parental distress, as assessed by the WHO Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ20), with height-for-age z score (HAZ), stunting, and behavioral and other risk factors for stunting. Results Maternal, paternal and parental distress (i.e. both maternal and paternal distress) were associated with reduced linear growth of the children by 0.086 (95% CI -0.17, -0.00), 0.11 (95% CI -0.24, -0.02) and 0.19 (95% CI -0.37, -0.00) HAZ-scores, respectively. Maternal and paternal distress increased the risk of mild stunting (HAZ <-1) by 33% (95% CI 1.17,1.50) and 37% (95% CI 1.18,1.60), and the risk of moderate stunting (HAZ <-2) by 25% (95% CI 1.10,1.43) and 28% (95% CI 1.08,1.51]), respectively. Parental stress increased the risk of moderate stunting by 40% (95% CI 1.06,1.85). Amongst specific groups of risk factors, the proportion of HAZ-score lost was associated with socioeconomic factors (30.3%) including, low wealth, low maternal occupational status, low maternal education, rural residence, and low paternal occupational status; physiological factors (15.5%) including low maternal height, low maternal mid-upper arm circumference, being male, low paternal height; behavioral factors (8.9%) including open garbage disposal, paternal smoking, not using iodized salt; and experiencing at least one infectious diseases episode (1.1%). Conclusions Maternal, paternal and parental stress were associated with reduced linear growth of children. These findings highlight the complex etiology of stunting and suggest nutritional and other biomedical interventions are insufficient, and that promotion of mental and behavioral health programs for parents must be pursued as part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance child growth and development, i.e. improved caretaker capacity, integrated community development, improved parenting skills, as well as reduced gender discrimination, and domestic violence.