Are parents' knowledge and practice regarding immunization related to pediatrics' immunization compliance? a mixed method study.
BACKGROUND
Immunization rate is one of the best public health outcome and service indicators of the last 100 years. Parental decisions regarding immunization are very important to improve immunization rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between parental knowledge-practices (KP) and children's immunization completeness.


METHODS
A mixed method has been utilized in this study: a retrospective cohort study was used to evaluate immunization completeness; a prospective cross-sectional study was used to evaluate immunization KP of parents. 528 children born between 1 January 2003 and 31 June 2008 were randomly selected from five public health clinics in Mosul, Iraq. Immunization history of each child was collected retrospectively from their immunization record/card.


RESULTS
About half of studied children (n = 286, 56.3%) were immunized with all vaccination doses; these children were considered as having had complete immunization. 66.1% of the parents was found to have adequate KP scores. A significant association of immunization completeness with total KP groups (p < 0.05) was found.


CONCLUSIONS
Future efforts are required to improve immunization rate and parents' knowledge and practice. The study results reinforce recommendations for the periodic assessment of immunization rate and the use of educational programmes to improve the immunization rate, knowledge and practice.
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical sciences, University of Duhok (UOD), Duhok, Iraq. omarallela2010@gmail.com.
Omer
O
Qutaiba B Al-lela
Mohd Baidi
MB
Bahari
Harith Khalid
HK
Al-Qazaz
Muhannad R M
MR
Salih
Shazia Q
SQ
Jamshed
Ramadan M
RM
Elkalmi
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires