Knowledge of Healthcare Workers on Immunization: New and Under-utilized and Perception towards Future Vaccines

Au Gajida,Rs Karaye,Aa Abulfathi,Am Jibo

doi:10.46912/jbrcp.124

Abstract

Nigeria is making effort to address the child mortality burden by increasing vaccine coverage rates, yet the vaccine coverage falls short of 90% target. Scaling up of new and under-used vaccines to 90% coverage could save more than 600,000 Nigerian children. Healthcare givers knowledge of vaccine used for immunization is essential to increase the vaccine uptake rates. This study assesses the knowledge of routine, underutilized and future vaccines among health workers. A cross sectional descriptive study was done among health care workers at a tertiary health facility in Nigeria. Using a pre-tested semi structured interviewer administered questionnaire, 220 respondents were selected by cluster sampling technique. The health workers’ knowledge of these vaccines was assessed using a scale developed for the study. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 22.The mean age of the respondents was 31.9 + 5.7 years . Doctors and nurses formed more than half of the respondents, 51.8% (n=114). About three quarters of respondents 72.3% (n=159) had good knowledge of vaccines used in routine immunizations. Knowledge of under-utilized and future vaccine was low with less than a fifth 18.6% (n=41) and one tenth 9.1% (n=20) having good knowledge scores respectively. Similarly, poor perception scores of future vaccines were observed in 90.1% (n=218) of the respondents. Only marital status was associated with knowledge of underutilized vaccines (p<0.05) and no association was observed between other sociodemographic variables and knowledge of these vaccines (P>0.05). The awareness level of health care workers on routine immunization is high. Their knowledge and perception of under-utilized and future vaccines were however low. There is, therefore, need for more training and retraining of health care workers on the vaccines.

Highlights

One of the most important ways to improve immunization services is to have parents and health care workers that work towards the benefits of immunization to the growing child
Nigeria has taken important steps in recent years to address the child mortality burden by increasing vaccine coverage yet, the vaccine coverage fall short of 90% target,[10] Scaling up of new and under-used vaccines to 90% coverage could save more than 600,000 Nigerian children from vaccine preventable disease (VPD) in the ten years, and eventually add an economic value equivalent to $17 billion to the nation's economy.[11,12]
All the healthcare workers studied are aware of vaccines used in routine immunization and know when a child should start receiving vaccines

Summary

Introduction

One of the most important ways to improve immunization services is to have parents and health care workers that work towards the benefits of immunization to the growing child. The purpose of the immunization program is to achieve high coverage among children so as to reduce morbidity and mortality that results from vaccine preventable diseases.[1] the benefit of preventing suffering and death from serious infectious diseases greatly outweighs the rare adverse effect following immunization,[2] disputes have arisen over the morality, ethics, cost, effectiveness and safety of. We assessed the knowledge of routine and underutilized vaccine among HCW and their perception on future vaccines and how it relates to immunization services in the country

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion