Assessment of knowledge and practice of childhood routine immunization among mothers/caregivers attending primary health care centres in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

he ultimate goal of immunization is to reduce the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases by attaining high levels of routine immunization coverage with potent vaccines administered at the appropriate ages and at the right intervals. This study assessed the knowledge and practice of childhood routine immunization among mothers/caregivers attending Primary Health Care Centers in Benin City, Edo State. A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 640 females whose wards were receiving immunization in 35 PHCs in Benin City was carried out. Mothers who met the inclusion criteria were recruited using a pre-tested interviewer administered structured questionnaires using a multistage sampling technique. Relationship between dependent and independent variables was determined using logistic regression analysis, at 95% confidence interval and p-values level less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results shows that all the caregivers were aware of immunization. 498(77.8%) with the media being as source of information. A higher proportion of respondent (44.8%) had good knowledge while (38.6% and 12.6%), fair and poor knowledge of immunization respectively. BCG and OPV were the most known vaccines (89.1%), followed by HBV (77.8%), DPT and PENTA were known by 70.6% and 66.1% of respondents respectively. This study revealed good knowledge of immunization amongst the caregivers and good practice with regards to the actual purpose of immunization.

Keywords: immunization, mothers, knowledge, under-five, practice