Zeitschrift für Forschung und Entwicklung im Bereich Gesundheitserziehung

Attitudes and Practices of Mothers Towards Child Immunization and Child Welfare Clinic Attendance: A Study at Madina Polyclinic

Abstract

Ephraim Kumi Senkyire

Background: Ghana’s child immunization coverage is one of the highest in the West African Sub-region but since child immunization coverage highly depends on the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers, it is important to assess these in a rapidly developing and changing society.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to find out mothers knowledge on vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, determine the sources of information of mothers on immunization and immunization-related issues, assess the attitudes and practices of nursing mothers towards child immunization, investigate the attitude of nursing mothers on Child Welfare Clinic attendance and to assess the attitudes of mothers towards the quality of interaction at the child welfare clinic and satisfaction with service delivery.

Methods: Employing a quantitative method, the study selected 100 respondents for primary data collection and analysis at Madina Polyclinic, a suburb of Accra. These respondents were mothers coming for vaccination of their children at the child welfare clinic in a period from first to 31 April 2014.

Results: From a total of 100 studied mothers, it was established that Mothers have poor knowledge of vaccines and vaccine-related issues. Despite the poor knowledge of mothers, their attitude towards child immunization was very high. The health worker was found to be the main source of information on immunization and immunization-related issues followed by the media and the mother of the respondent. The health worker was also the most trusted source of information relating to immunization. The study found that despite the positive attitude towards immunization mothers had negative practices towards it (mothers afraid of vaccination, preferring a particular mode of vaccine delivery etc.). These negative attitudes could be related to that of poor knowledge. The mother’s work did not prevent the mother from bringing the child to the child welfare clinic for immunization. The mother’s ill health and forgetfulness were the most common causes for missing an immunization schedule at the child welfare clinic. Mothers reported problems with the point of immunization service delivery but nevertheless were satisfied with health care workers performance and felt comfortable coming for vaccines at the immunization clinic.

Conclusions: On the bases of the findings recommendations were made to stakeholders in the health sector to input extra effort to raise the knowledge and address the problem of misinformation of the people. Appropriate information dissemination, aggressive campaigning and family involvement are crucial to the success of the program. Emphasis by health professionals on parents with lower education should also be prioritized.