Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Parents Towards Immunization of Children in Saudi Arabia, 2018

Ahmed Saleh1, Abdualelah Awad Alrashidi 2, Muhjah Abdulhakim Bukhari 3, Rawan Fuad Habib1, Rawan Awad Alsubhi1, Deyala Wadie Saadawi 1, Ragdah Faisa L AL Hatim 1,

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Parents Towards Immunization of Children in Saudi Arabia, 2018

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Rawan Fuad Habib1, Rawan Awad Alsubhi1, Deyala Wadie Saadawi 1, Ragdah Faisa L AL Hatim 1, Ahmed Saleh1, Abdualelah Awad Alrashidi 2, Muhjah Abdulhakim Bukhari 3

1Ibn Sina National College, 2Jouf university, 3Umm Alqura university

Abstract

Background: Immunization has shown a major preventive aspect of infectious diseases, disability and death. Objectives: Assessing the Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Saudi parents in Saudi Arabiathe immunization programs for children, Saudi Arabia (KSA), 2018.
Methods: It is a cross sectional survey study that was carried among 600 different Saudi parents form different Cities of Saudi Arabiafor 3 months from Nov 2017 to Jan 2018. The parents completed a questionnaire that contains 4 different parts about the demographics, knowledge, attitude and practice of parents toward immunization. Results: The included parents have shown a high level of awareness about vaccination regarding the preventive measures and importance of vaccination which resulted in positive attitudes and practice pattern among most of them. The overall KAP was good among most of the parents (87.2%). The higher KAP level was significantly associated with female gender, higher educational degree and having higher number of children. Conclusion: Most of Saudi parents had good KAP toward immunization which was associated with female gender and higher educational degrees. However, educational programs are still needed to increase the parents’ knowledge and practice especially among illiterate and less educated parents living in rural areas.

Keywords