Assessment Of Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Regarding Vaccination Among Parents In Urban And Rural Populations

Original Article

Abstract

Background: Vaccination saves children's lives and keeps them healthy. Attitudes and understanding KAP differences among parents, especially urban vs. rural, remain. These differences must be understood to be able to improve immunization coverage and decrease the number of diseases that vaccines can prevent.

Objectives: To evaluate how well parents understand, feel, and act about childhood vaccination in city and country settings, and to find out the socio-demographic aspects that affect vaccination behavior in both settings.

Methodology:This cross-sectional study Conducted in the Department of  Community Medicine Jinnah Medical College Peshawar From jan 2023 to Jan 2024 .focused on 150 parents (75 urban, 75 rural) using a structured questionnaire regarding KAP on vaccinations. Parents of children under five years were included, while Exclusion were healthcare professionals, as well as parents of children five years and older and parents who declined to respond. Data were analyzed through SPSS using descriptive and inferential chi-square and t-tests with a 5% margin of error. Ethical approval was obtained.

Results: The Mean age of 150 participants was 32.8 ± 6.4 years. Urban parents showed significantly higher knowledge scores than rural parents (p=0.01). 82% of urban and 64% of rural parents had positive attitudes towards vaccination (p=0.04). 78% of urban respondents and 61% of rural respondents reported their children had complete immunizations (p=0.03). Education and income were significant predictors of more positive vaccination behavior. Rural areas had lower levels of awareness, whereby gaps in knowledge, traditional beliefs, and the use of customs resulted in lower uptake.

Conclusion: The study uncovered important disparities in knowledge, attitudes, and practices between urban and rural parents. Recognizing rural parents’ lower educational attainment and access, their awareness and immunization coverage was lower because urban parents exhibited worse awareness. There is a need for public health interventions focused on rural communities that include community participation, outreach by health workers, and educational campaigns that target the inequalities regarding the equitable provision of vaccinations.