Abstract
BackgroundImmunization rate is one of the best public health outcome and service indicators of the last 100 years. Parental decisions regarding immunization are very important to improve immunization rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between parental knowledge-practices (KP) and children's immunization completeness.MethodsA mixed method has been utilized in this study: a retrospective cohort study was used to evaluate immunization completeness; a prospective cross-sectional study was used to evaluate immunization KP of parents. 528 children born between 1 January 2003 and 31 June 2008 were randomly selected from five public health clinics in Mosul, Iraq. Immunization history of each child was collected retrospectively from their immunization record/card.ResultsAbout half of studied children (n = 286, 56.3%) were immunized with all vaccination doses; these children were considered as having had complete immunization. 66.1% of the parents was found to have adequate KP scores. A significant association of immunization completeness with total KP groups (p < 0.05) was found.ConclusionsFuture efforts are required to improve immunization rate and parents' knowledge and practice. The study results reinforce recommendations for the periodic assessment of immunization rate and the use of educational programmes to improve the immunization rate, knowledge and practice.
Highlights
Immunization rate is one of the best public health outcome and service indicators of the last 100 years
Two hundred and eighty-sex children were immunized with all vaccination doses (56.3%); these children were considered as having had complete immunization, but less than half of the children had one or more than one missed doses and were considered as having had partial immunization
Using the categorization of the knowledge-practice scores explained in the median split method, we formed two groups of adequate and inadequate knowledge-practice of parents respectively
Summary
Immunization rate is one of the best public health outcome and service indicators of the last 100 years. Parental decisions regarding immunization are very important to improve immunization rate. Parental decisions regarding immunization are very important for increasing the immunization rate and compliance and for decreasing any possible immunization errors. Parents’ knowledge and practices regarding immunization are the major factors that contribute to their vaccination decisions [1]. Deficiencies in parents’ knowledge about the adverse effects. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and others health care providers should provide parents with correct information about the risks and benefits of vaccines [7]. Parents would like to know about the adverse effects, the benefits and other information about vaccines, many physicians include vaccine risk in their discussions with parents without comparing it to the risks involved in infectious disease [11]
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