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Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country
BACKGROUND: The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) was initiated by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974 in order to save children from life threatening, disabling vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). In Pakistan, this program was launched in 1978 with the main objectives of eradicating polio...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716633/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23848348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/0778-7367-71-19 |
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author | Sheikh, Asfandyar Iqbal, Bushra Ehtamam, Anabia Rahim, Maria Shaikh, Hiba Arshad Usmani, Hina Azhar Nasir, Javeria Ali, Sheharbano Zaki, Muniba Wahab, Tooba Abdul Wasim, Warda Aftab, Ali Akber |
author_facet | Sheikh, Asfandyar Iqbal, Bushra Ehtamam, Anabia Rahim, Maria Shaikh, Hiba Arshad Usmani, Hina Azhar Nasir, Javeria Ali, Sheharbano Zaki, Muniba Wahab, Tooba Abdul Wasim, Warda Aftab, Ali Akber |
author_sort | Sheikh, Asfandyar |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) was initiated by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974 in order to save children from life threatening, disabling vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). In Pakistan, this program was launched in 1978 with the main objectives of eradicating polio by 2012, eliminating measles and neonatal tetanus by 2015, and minimizing the incidence of other VPDs. However, despite the efforts of government and WHO, this program has not received the amount of success that was desired. Hence, the objectives of this study were to elucidate the main reasons behind not achieving the full immunization coverage in Pakistan, the awareness of children’s attendant about the importance of vaccination, their attitudes, thoughts and fears regarding childhood immunization, and the major hurdles faced in pursuit of getting their children vaccinated. METHODS: This was an observational, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted during a one year period from 4th January, 2012 to 6th January, 2013 at the pediatric outpatient clinics of Civil Hospital (CHK) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH). We attempted to interview all the parents who could be approached during the period of the study. Thus, convenience sampling was employed. The parents were approached in the clinics and interviewed after seeking informed, written consent. Those patients who were not accompanied by either of their parents were excluded from the study. The study instrument comprised of three sections. The first section consisted was concerned with the demographics of the patient and the parents. The second section dealt with the reasons for complete vaccination or under-vaccination. The last section aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of the respondents. RESULTS: Out of 1044 patients, only 713(68.3%) were fully vaccinated, 239(22.9%) were partially vaccinated while 92(8.8%) had never been vaccinated. The vaccination status showed statistically significant association with ethnicity, income, residence, number of children and paternal occupation (p < 0.05 for all). The most common provocative factor for vaccination compliance was mass media (61.9%). The most common primary reason for non-vaccination was lack of knowledge (18.1%), whereas the most common secondary reason for non-vaccination was religious taboos (31.4%). Majority of the respondents demonstrated poor knowledge of EPI schedules or VPDs. However, most believed that there was a need for more active government/NGO involvement in this area. CONCLUSION: The most common primary reason for non-vaccination, i.e. lack of knowledge, and the most common secondary reason, i.e. religious taboos, imply that there is dire need to promote awareness among the masses in collaboration with NGOs, and major religious and social organizations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3716633 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37166332013-07-20 Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country Sheikh, Asfandyar Iqbal, Bushra Ehtamam, Anabia Rahim, Maria Shaikh, Hiba Arshad Usmani, Hina Azhar Nasir, Javeria Ali, Sheharbano Zaki, Muniba Wahab, Tooba Abdul Wasim, Warda Aftab, Ali Akber Arch Public Health Research BACKGROUND: The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) was initiated by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974 in order to save children from life threatening, disabling vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). In Pakistan, this program was launched in 1978 with the main objectives of eradicating polio by 2012, eliminating measles and neonatal tetanus by 2015, and minimizing the incidence of other VPDs. However, despite the efforts of government and WHO, this program has not received the amount of success that was desired. Hence, the objectives of this study were to elucidate the main reasons behind not achieving the full immunization coverage in Pakistan, the awareness of children’s attendant about the importance of vaccination, their attitudes, thoughts and fears regarding childhood immunization, and the major hurdles faced in pursuit of getting their children vaccinated. METHODS: This was an observational, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted during a one year period from 4th January, 2012 to 6th January, 2013 at the pediatric outpatient clinics of Civil Hospital (CHK) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH). We attempted to interview all the parents who could be approached during the period of the study. Thus, convenience sampling was employed. The parents were approached in the clinics and interviewed after seeking informed, written consent. Those patients who were not accompanied by either of their parents were excluded from the study. The study instrument comprised of three sections. The first section consisted was concerned with the demographics of the patient and the parents. The second section dealt with the reasons for complete vaccination or under-vaccination. The last section aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of the respondents. RESULTS: Out of 1044 patients, only 713(68.3%) were fully vaccinated, 239(22.9%) were partially vaccinated while 92(8.8%) had never been vaccinated. The vaccination status showed statistically significant association with ethnicity, income, residence, number of children and paternal occupation (p < 0.05 for all). The most common provocative factor for vaccination compliance was mass media (61.9%). The most common primary reason for non-vaccination was lack of knowledge (18.1%), whereas the most common secondary reason for non-vaccination was religious taboos (31.4%). Majority of the respondents demonstrated poor knowledge of EPI schedules or VPDs. However, most believed that there was a need for more active government/NGO involvement in this area. CONCLUSION: The most common primary reason for non-vaccination, i.e. lack of knowledge, and the most common secondary reason, i.e. religious taboos, imply that there is dire need to promote awareness among the masses in collaboration with NGOs, and major religious and social organizations. BioMed Central 2013-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3716633/ /pubmed/23848348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/0778-7367-71-19 Text en Copyright © 2013 Sheikh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Sheikh, Asfandyar Iqbal, Bushra Ehtamam, Anabia Rahim, Maria Shaikh, Hiba Arshad Usmani, Hina Azhar Nasir, Javeria Ali, Sheharbano Zaki, Muniba Wahab, Tooba Abdul Wasim, Warda Aftab, Ali Akber Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title | Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title_full | Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title_fullStr | Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title_full_unstemmed | Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title_short | Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
title_sort | reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716633/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23848348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/0778-7367-71-19 |
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