Public Knowledge Improvement of the Medicinal Plant as Immunomodulator in Pandemic Era

Abstract

Vaccination is an effort to prevent Covid-19. In addition, the 5M health protocols, such as
wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining distance, avoiding crowds, and reducing
mobility are not enough to avoid Covid-19. Education is needed as an effort to increase
public knowledge about the use of medicinal plants during a pandemic. The method that
used in this study includes a preparation, implementation, and reports. Pretest and
posttest values were analyzed by univariate and bivariate. The results showed that there
was a change in the level of knowledge, such as a decrease in low-knowledge category
from 11.6% to 2.3%, the middle-knowledge category from 48.8% to 11.6% and an increase
in good-knowledge category from 39.5% to 86.0 %. Wilcoxon test used in this study with
95% confidence level showed that there was a significant difference between before and
after education (p value = 0.000). The education is able to increase public knowledge,
especially Muhammadiyah society about the use of medicinal plants to increase
immunity during a pandemic.