THE EFFECT OF GARGE USING VIRGIN COCONUT OIL (VCO) ON COUGH COMPLAINTS IN THE ELDERLY AT THE PAYUNG SEKAKI HEALTH CENTER, PEKANBARU CITY

Abstrak

The number of elderlies is increasing by the development in the medical field which can be seen from the increase in life expectancy and the decrease in death expectancy. One of the elderlies’ health problems is coughing. Coughing is a lung defense mechanism towards various stimuli and physiology reflect that protect the lungs from mechanical trauma, chemical trauma, and temperature. Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is one of the traditional medicines that can be used as an antibacterial that can easily be found around society. VCO contains lauric acid that is identified as having antimicrobials activity towards various microorganisms.   This research was aimed to find out the effect of gargling with virgin coconut oil on cough complaints of the elderly in Payung Sekaki public health center (PUSKESMAS) Pekanbaru. This is a quantitative research using a quasi-experimental design with post-test and pre-test without control. This research is done in December 2019 to February 2020. The research measurement tool was check-sheet about coughing complain in pre and post-intervention. The research sample is elderlies in Puskesmas Payung Sekaki (26 respondents) working area chosen with total sampling. Each respondent is given 5 ml VCO + 5 ml water to gargle in 60 seconds in the morning and the night for 5 days. The sample was analyzed using a paired t-test. The research result was p-value = 0,000 (< 0,05) which means there is an effect of gargling with virgin coconut oil toward cough complaints of the elderlies in Payung Sekaki public health center (PUSKESMAS) Pekanbaru. This research can be used by nurses as an intervention to reduce coughing complains of elderlies naturally by gargling using VCO