Dio Suhenda, Jakarta – The government has announced plans to launch a National Health Survey (SKI) in August, an opportunity to measure the state of the nation's health and nutrition, as well as the risk factors plaguing millions of Indonesians.
Speaking at a coordination meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said that the health survey was critical in helping the government formulate relevant health policies in the future.
This is particularly important as the 2020-2024 national midterm development plan (RPJMN) is reaching its end, and the Health Ministry is hoping for the survey to be a key component in drawing up the country's next road map.
The last time the country did a health survey, known as the Basic Health Research (Riskesda), was in 2018.
"This survey is needed [since it reveals] very sensitive pieces of evidence that represent the state of health of the Indonesian people," Dante said during the meeting.
"Often when we collect data, it isn't put to optimum use. So we need to ensure that once this upcoming survey is completed we make the most of it."
This year's survey, the deputy minister said, aims to integrate different datasets and data-collection methods to paint a better picture of public health. The results of the Riskesdas, the national nutritional status survey (SSGI) and existing biomedical data are included in the process.
While the survey has dozens of indicators, the five main indicators are the prevalence of stunting and wasting among children younger than five; the prevalence of smokers aged 12-23; the prevalence of obesity among adults over 18; and the percentage of infants, two-years-old and under, who have completed basic immunization.
The ministry's Health Policy Development Agency (BPKP) will take the lead on data collection, which is expected to start in August, with results for the five main indicators slated for announcement in November.
Some 586,000 households across the country's 38 provinces will be sampled for the survey, and the data-collection process will entail interviews and anthropometric and biomedical measurements, which include dental and oral examinations.
To this end, the ministry has enlisted some 34,500 integrated health service post (Posyandu) workers and 7,500 community health center (Puskesmas) workers, as well as 3,000 dentists from across the country to aid in the survey, in addition to 11,500 designated data collectors.
"[Regional administrations] can also use the results of the 2023 survey as a basis to plan, execute and evaluate evidence-based health policies," BKPK head Syarifah Liza Munira said, also on Tuesday.