PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT RAWABOGO : JUS TIMUN SEBAGAI UPAYA MENURUNKAN TEKANAN DARAH SECARA MANDIRI

Abstract

Hypertension remains a major health problem in rural Indonesia. This community service aimed to empower the Rawabogo community through hypertension education and cucumber juice therapy as a self‑managed effort to lower blood pressure. Activities included health education with pre‑test and post‑test (35 participants) and a three‑day cucumber juice intervention (100 ml/day) for six randomly selected hypertensive respondents. Blood pressure was measured before and 1‑2 hours after juice consumption. Results showed a significant increase in knowledge scores from 56.00±8.12 to 80.00±6.86 (p<0.001). After cucumber juice consumption, mean systolic blood pressure decreased from 172.3±28.3 mmHg before intervention (baseline) to 154.3±16.4 mmHg on day‑2, while mean diastolic blood pressure also decreased from 99.2±18.9 mmHg to 92.7±7.9 mmHg on day‑1. However, blood pressure reductions varied considerably among individuals, with some respondents showing better responses than others. In conclusion, health education effectively improved knowledge, and cucumber juice at 100 ml per day showed potential as a complementary therapy for blood pressure reduction. This program is recommended for replication in other rural areas with the support of local health cadres