IMMUNIZATION OF CHILDREN

Objectives: To ascertain the level of awareness and the preliminaryunderstanding about the importance and the practice of immunization of children among themothers hailing from an adjoining slum area while visiting a nearby tertiary care hospital atLahore. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: The respondents of this study werethe mothers coming from an urban slum area and visiting the pediatrics outpatient departmentof a nearby tertiary care hospital in Lahore city. Period: May 2016 to July 2016. Methods: 60mothers of reproductive age and all having children in the ages needing routine immunizationcoverage through expanded programme on immunization. Convenient sampling techniquewas adopted to select the respondents. Data was collected through a questionnaire which wasfilled during face-to-face interview of each voluntary participant. Results: 34.3% respondentshad general awareness about immunization of children, and out of them, only 6% mothers hadadditional understanding of the rationale for the immunization. 45% mothers had only partialawareness about immunization with no understanding of its rationale. 20% respondents had nosignificant awareness. Overall 10% of all the respondents had the knowledge about the need ofbooster doses of certain vaccines administered in expanded programme on immunization. Theawareness about the names of diseases prevented through the routine and free vaccinationprogramme was associated with the literacy level and socio-economic status of the respondingmothers. Conclusion: Inadequate awareness and basic understanding about immunizationwas found by this small study conducted among the mothers coming from an adjoining slumarea of a tertiary care hospital in Lahore city.