ABSTRACT
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSYANDU ATTENDANCE PARTICIPATION AND THE LEVEL OF COMPLIANCE IN TAKING ANTIHYPERTENSIVE MEDICATIONS AMONG ELDERLY PEOPLE IN THE WORK AREA OF BALONG HEALTH CENTER

By: Diana Puspita
Hypertension in the elderly is a chronic health problem that requires long-term medication adherence to prevent serious complications. Active participation by the elderly in Posyandu (Integrated Health Post) activities is expected to be an effective promotive and preventive tool to support medication adherence through routine health monitoring and social support. This study aims to analyze the relationship between Posyandu attendance and adherence to antihypertensive medication among the elderly in the Balong Community Health Center (Puskesmas).
The study design used a correlational analytic approach with a cross-sectional approach. The population in this study were all elderly people with active hypertension registered in Purworejo Village, within the Balong Community Health Center (Puskesmas) area. A total sampling technique was used to select 36 respondents. Participation data were collected through official Posyandu registration observation sheets for the past 12 months, while medication adherence data were measured using the structured Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Spearman Rank correlation test at a significance level of α=0.05.
The cross-tabulation results indicate that although most respondents with regular participation have high adherence, there are still respondents who regularly attend but are non-compliant, as well as respondents who do not attend regularly but still have high adherence to antihypertensive medication. The Spearman Rank test results showed a p-value of 0.043, which is less than the 0.05 significance level, with a correlation coefficient (r_s) of 0.339. This proves a statistically significant, positive, and weak correlation between Posyandu attendance and adherence to antihypertensive medication in the elderly.
It can be concluded that the more regularly elderly Posyandu attenders, the higher their adherence to antihypertensive medication. Therefore, optimization of the Posyandu program for the elderly needs to be continuously improved through family and health cadre approaches to reduce the risk of complications from hypertension.

Keywords: Posyandu, medication compliance, antihypertensive medication, elderly, hypertension