AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF VACCINATION AMONG PARENTS - IN A MALAYSIAN DISTRICT

Learning Objectives for this Presentation:
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to : 1) know the importance of the awareness programme 2) plan and implement disease prevention programmes

Background:
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To assess and evaluate the awareness of vaccination in infants and children among parents.

Objectives:
to educate parents about the importance of vaccination

Methods:
A prospective questionnaire based study carried out at the child health clinic to determine the importance and parents perception of immunisation. Parents were regularly counseled on immunisation. Following counseling, questionnaires were distributed to the study group from March 2007 till May 2007.

Results:
: A total of 167 questionnaires were available for analysis. From our analysis the majority had secondary education (mothers 69.5%, fathers 71.9%), followed by tertiary education (mothers 21.6%, fathers 20.4%)
85.6% of mothers had delivered at Government hospitals and 14.4% at private centers. Among these respondents 99% had their children immunised at the government health clinics and 1% at the private centers.
Health care providers (63.5%) were the main source of information about vaccination, however 1.8% did not receive any information on vaccination. Only 60.5% of the respondents were aware of the immunization schedule and 27.5% were aware of the Pneumococcal vaccine. Moreover, 63.5% had some understanding of vaccination in terms of side effects and contraindications.
76% of the subjects claimed had received counseling about Pneumococcal vaccine. 40.1% of respondents claimed they comprehended the counseling received. However the survey did not substantiate their claims as only 20.4% were found to have a true understanding of Pneumococcal vaccine .
Finally 98.8% of parents felt that immunizations should be made compulsory and subsidized fully by the government

Conclusions:
: This survey concludes that the awareness of immunization is still lacking among parents. Hence an awareness programme, if well initiated , with improved counseling techniques may improve the knowledge and perception of immunization.