Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of caregivers on childhood immunization in Okaikoi sub-metro of Accra, Ghana
Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers in Public Health
Abstract
Background: Immunization remains one of the most cost-effective health
interventions. However, there are still issues of vaccine hesitancy especially in
caregivers who are required to protect their children from vaccine-preventable
diseases. This thwarts the overall vaccine coverage in disease-endemic areas such
as sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, to determine the factors that promote vaccine
hesitancy in caregivers, this study sought to assess the knowledge, attitude, and
practices of caregivers on childhood immunization in Okaikoi, a sub-metro of
Accra in Ghana.
Methods: A cross-sectional study on childhood immunization was conducted to
determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of caregivers. A total of 120
caregivers with infants aged 12 months to 23 months were interviewed with a
structured questionnaire containing open-ended and closed-ended queries.
Results: From the community, infants whose caregivers had adhered completely
to immunization constituted 53.3% while the rest were partially immunized. The
two main deterrents to complete immunization were time constraints (25.8%)
and forgetfulness (17.5%). It was observed that vaccination uptake and maternal
level of education, as well as vaccination adverse reaction, did not impact the
completion of the EPI program by these caregivers. Unfortunately, it was noted
that caregivers with higher education levels were unable to complete their
vaccination schedules due to their busy work schedules. Nonetheless, the main
deterrent to adhering to complete childhood immunization was poor maternal
knowledge (58%).
Conclusion: The study revealed that, the caregivers in the community had poor
knowledge on vaccination and its benefits, and therefore, with no strict adherence
to vaccination schedules. This promoted the incomplete immunization of
children in the community by their caregivers. Also, since the main source of
information with regard to immunization in the sub-metro was through the
antenatal and postnatal child welfare clinics and the media, we recommend that
the health workers collaborate with media personnel to ensure that standardized
information is disseminated.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
immunization, child immunization, attitudes, immunization coverage