Assessment of Parents’ Attitude toward EPI (Expanded Program on Immunization) in Tertiary Care Hospitals of Karachi
Keywords:
Parents, Tertiary Care Hospitals, EPI, VaccinationAbstract
Objective:To assess parents’ attitude toward EPI(Expanded program on Immunization) in three Tertiary Care Hospitals of
Karachi
Materials and Methods:This cross sectional hospital based study was conducted at three tertiary care hospitals of Karachi,
PNS SHIFA Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) and Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) from a period of 20th
July to 20th September, 2015. A structured questionnaire based interview was conducted on150 parents of children less than 5
year of age visiting for vaccination at these three tertiary care hospitals.Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.
Results:A total of 150 parents were interviewed, out of which 93 (62.0%) parents vaccinated their child immediately after birth,
148(98.7%) parents considered EPI as beneficial for their child’s health, 113 (75.3%) parents were found to be aware of the
complete vaccination schedule, 56(37.3%)parents had appropriate knowledge regarding vaccines and diseases enlisted on the
EPI card, 139 (92.7%) parents kept the record of vaccination schedule, 143(95.3 %) parents didn’t ignored vaccination due to
increased number of children and 21(14%)parents had fear regarding vaccination program.
Conclusion:Parent’s attitude toward EPI was positive. However, knowledge about vaccines and diseases and vaccines enlisted
on EPI card was low.
References
Tarin E, Khalil M, Mustafa T, Alvi ZM, Sy ITS, Thomson
SJ et al.Impact of community based intervention on immunization
coverage against vaccine preventable diseases
in Pakistan. Pakistan J Health 1999;36:53-6
Encyclopedia of the Nations. Asia and Oceania. Pakistan.
Pakistan Health. (Online) 2007 (Cited 2007 December
. Available from URL:Available at: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.
com/Asia-and-Oceania/Pakistan-HEALTH.
html.
World Health Organization Media Center.Global Alliance
for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). (Online) 2004
(Cited 2004 June 16). Available from URL:
http://www. who.int/entity/mediacentre/factsheets/en
Bhutta ZA, Gupta I, de'Silva H, Manandhar D, Awasthi
S, Hossain SM, et al. Maternal and child health: is South
Asia ready for change? BMJ 2004; 328: 816-9
World Health Organization. Immunization, Vaccines
and Biologicals. (Online) 2007 (Cited 2007 December
. Available from URL:
http://www.who.int/immunization/en/
World Health Report 1999.Making a Difference. (Online)
(Cited 2007 December 18). Available from URL:
http://www.who.int/whr/1999/en/
UNICEF, State of the world Children 2004. Oxford
University Press. New York
Petrovic V, Seguljev Z, Gajin B. Maintaining the cold
chain for vaccines. Med Pregl. 2005; 58: 333-41
Rahman M, Islam MA, Mahalanabis D. Mothers' knowledge
about vaccine preventable diseases and immunization
coverage in a population with high rate of illiteracy.
J Trop Pediatr 1995; 41: 376-8
WangYY, Wang Y, Zhang JX, Kang CY, Duan P. Status
of mother's KAP on child immunization in minority
areas, Guizhou Province [Article in Chinese]. Beijing
Da XueXueBao 2007; 39: 136-9
Adhikari P, Dhungel S, Shrestha R. Knowledge, attitude
and practice (KAP) study regarding facts for life. Nepal
Med Coll J 2006; 8: 93-6
Anjum Q, Omair A, Inam SN. Improving vaccination
status of children under five through health education.J
Pak Med Assoc 2004; 54: 610-3
Wright PF. Global immunization: a medical perspective.
SocSci Med 1995; 41: 609-16
Nichter M. Vaccination in South Asia: false expectations
and commanding metaphors. In: Coreil J, ed. Anthropology
and primary health care. Oxford: Westview Press;
p. 196-221
Expanded Program on Immunization. The Social Science
and Immunization Research Project.Wkly Epidemiol
Rec 1998; 73:285-8
Case A, Paxson C. Parental Behavior and Child Health:
Health coverage by itself may not influence some of the
health-related family behavior that affects children’s
health. Health affairs 2002;21(2): 164-8
Shahab F,Hussain H,Gul H. Vaccination status and causes
of under vaccination in pediatric patients admitted at
Khyber teaching hospital Peshawar. J postgrad MedInst
;27(4):439-4
Sheikh A, Iqbal B, Ehtamam A, Rahim M, Shaikh H A.
Reasons for non-vaccination in pediatric patients visiting
tertiary care centers in a polio-prone country. Archives
of Public Health. The official journal of the Belgian
Public Health Association 2013;71:19 DOI: 10.1186/
-7367-71-19
Sultana A, Jahan S, Ahmad I. Knowledge, Attitude and
Practice of immunization in an urban population. Pak
Armed Forces Med J 2001; 51: 177-81
Siddiqi N, Azfar Alam Siddiqi, Nighat Nisar, Altaf Khan.
Mother’s knowledge about EPI and its relation with ageappropriate
vaccination of infants in peri-urban Karachi,
JPMA 2010; 15: 391-5
Nisar N, Mirza M, Qadri MH. Knowledge, Attitude and
Practices of mothers regarding immunization of one
year old child at Mawatch Goth, Kemari Town, Karachi.
Pak J Med Sci 2010;26(1):183-6
Qidwai W, Ali SS, Ayub S, Ayub S. Knowledge, attitude
and practice regarding immunization among family
practice patients JDUSH 2007;1(1):15-7
Ramzan, Maqsood. Status of immunization of children
and factors related to partial and non-immunization
Biomedica 2014;30(3) :1-4
Kumar D, Aggarwal A, Gomber S. Immunization status
of children admitted to a tertiary-care hospital of north
India: reasons for partial immunization or non-immunization.
J Health Popul Nutr 2010;28(3):300-4
Shoma FN, Shah NA, Sarker MN, Islam MMSU, Saad T.
EPI Coverage among Under 5 Children Attending
Pediatric Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital
Faridpur Med. Coll. J 2012;7(2):59-62
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Abdul Qadir, Khola Noreen, Tahira Zamir, Muhammad Sajid Abbas Jaffri, Nazish Fatima, Rehana Khan, Sadia Atta
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Journal of Bahria University Medical & Dental College is an open access journal and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. which permits unrestricted non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 
