Awareness and knowledge of childhood immunization among Malaysian parents

Immunization can be defined as a process to protect a person from getting diseases through administration of vaccine. It has become compulsory in health management since it is one of the methods to improve quality of life of a person by decreasing the rate of getting infectious diseases, hence reducing the rate of mortality. However, previous studies showed that many vaccines were still being under-utilized due to low level of compliance among public and misconceptions towards immunization among parents. Therefore, this present study aimed to determine the awareness and level of knowledge of childhood immunization among Malaysian parents and to determine the association between demographical status of Malaysian parents with their awareness towards immunization. A cross-sectional study was conducted which involved Puncak Alam residents as respondents. Questionnaire adopted from Immunization Awareness Program - 2005 Evaluation Report from Sydney West Area Health Service was modified as to fit the criteria of immunization in Malaysia. A total of 210 questionnaires were being distributed to the parents by using convenient sampling method. Descriptive analysis was used to determine the level of awareness and knowledge of childhood immunization among the respondents, while Chi-square test for independence (with Fisher's Exact Test) was used to determine the association between demographical profiles of respondents with their awareness towards immunization. This study found that the majority of the respondents (88.6%) had high level of awareness towards childhood immunization as they follow their child's immunization schedule, but the level of knowledge of most of the respondents was moderate since most of them were unable to identify vaccine­ preventable diseases for their children and also answered wrongly on the age that the schedule should be completed question. This study also showed that there were significant association (p < 0.05) between demographical status (gender, age and level of education) of respondents with their awareness towards immunization.