Abstract
Background: In Ethiopia, a considerable proportion of childhood morbidity and mortality is due to vaccine preventable diseases. According to EDHS 2011, only 24% of children were fully vaccinated nationally. Mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice are key tools to decrease dropout rates and to prevent or control infectious diseases. Thus, this study was aimed to assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of mothers regarding infant immunization and their associated factors in immunization clinic in health centers at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1st to April 1st, 2013. Multi stage sampling technique was used for participant selection. Participants were interviewed with structured questionnaire for different variables. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analyses were performed during data analysis. Results: Only 55.0%, 53.8%, and 84% of respondents had good knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice towards immunization of infants, respectively. Maternal education (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR[= 1.781, 95% CI: 1.035, 3.065), respondents who had infants aged from 3-9 months (AOR=1.947, 95% CI:1.051, 3.607), 9-12 months (AOR =2.305, 95% CI: 1.216, 4.371) and mothers who gave births greater or equal to two times (AOR = 1.560, 95% CI: 1.087, 2.238) were significantly associated with knowledge of mothers regarding immunization of infants. Mothers’ education (AOR = 2.160, 95% CI: 1.208, 3.864) and mothers who had infants’ aged from 2-3 months (AOR = 2.014, 95% CI: 1.044, 3.883) were significantly association with favorable attitude towards immunization of infants. Good infant immunization practice was significantly associated with mothers who heard information about vaccination (AOR=1.784, 95% CI: 1.002, 3.176), mothers who know correctly the time when infants should begin immunization (AOR=2.240, 95% CI: 1.198, 4.192), know the number of sessions needed (AOR=1.772, 95% CI: 1.076, 2.918), know the time when infants should complete immunization (AOR=1.800, 95% CI: 1.123, 2.885) and place of delivery (AOR=23.829, 95% CI: 10.025, 56.639). Conclusions: Knowledge and attitude of mothers’ about infant vaccination was not adequate. Despite inadequate knowledge and attitude of mothers towards infant immunization, 84.0% of mothers found in Addis Ababa had good practice of infants’ immunization. Health education to promote knowledge and attitude based immunization practice is recommended.
Highlights
In Ethiopia, a considerable proportion of childhood morbidity and mortality is due to vaccine preventable diseases
About 90% of respondents correctly mentioned the time when infants should begin vaccination programs and should follow immunization sessions as per of the scheduled time (97.6%). This is similar to a study done in India; all mothers had the knowledge that immunization is important for the child and all of them knew that immunization is to be started at birth and should follow vaccination sessions [13]
Despite the fact that greater than half of respondents in this study have mentioned correctly the time when infants should begin and finish vaccination, only 23.8% of mothers correctly knew the objective of immunization (i.e. ‘to prevent specific and killer diseases’).This is consistent with the response of mothers in rural Nigeria which indicated that only 20.1% [14] and contradicts with another finding in Enugu, Nigeria, 81.2% of respondents mentioned correctly the objective of immunization [15]
Summary
In Ethiopia, a considerable proportion of childhood morbidity and mortality is due to vaccine preventable diseases. Mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice are key tools to decrease dropout rates and to prevent or control infectious diseases. This study was aimed to assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of mothers regarding infant immunization and their associated factors in immunization clinic in health centers at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Despite inadequate knowledge and attitude of mothers towards infant immunization, 84.0% of mothers found in Addis Ababa had good practice of infants’ immunization. Health education to promote knowledge and attitude based immunization practice is recommended. According to the Ethiopia Ministry of health 2011annual health and health related indicator report, national infant and under five mortality rates were 59 and 88/1000 live births, respectively [4]. Measles attributed to 4% of child and infant deaths in 2004 which was highest of the world [6]
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