A Cross Sectional Study to Assess the Impact of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of Parents on Immunization Coverage of their Children

Abstract

Background: Many studies proved that, parents’ knowledge on the risks and benefits of vaccination is directly proportional to the attitude and practice in immunizing their children. As parents are the decision makers, their KAP towards vaccination play a major role in achieving adequate immunization coverage of the community. Objective: To assess the impact of parent’s KAP on immunization coverage of their children. Method: A cross sectional study enrolled parents of children aged 2-5 years visiting the pediatric department of JSS Hospital, Mysuru. A validated KAP questionnaire in local language was used as the study tool. Median split method was used to categorize the parent’s KAP into adequate and inadequate. Statistical analysis was performed using independent t-test and One Way ANOVA. Results: The mean KAP score of the study population was 15.25 and 56.54% (n=95) of them scored more than the mean KAP. The adequate KAP score was observed among 51.19% of the study population and 48.81% had inadequate KAP scores. The study identified a statistically significant association between the KAP scores of the parents and the immunization coverage of their children. Significant association was also observed between the KAP scores and factors such as number of kids, place of stay , educational and socioeconomic status of the parent. Conclusion: It is important to understand the KAP of parents towards immunization of their children and develop and implement suitable interventions/strategies to improve the immunization coverage.