Determinants of Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice toward Childhood Vaccination: A National Study

Childhood vaccination is one of the World Health Organization's strategies to reduce vaccine-preventable diseases and children's mortality and morbidity rates. Adequate and accurate knowledge, as well as positive attitudes regarding vaccination, may increase parents’ compliance with their children’s vaccines.

This study aimed to identify the determinants of parents’ knowledge, attitude, and practice toward childhood vaccination in Jordan.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The stratification method of sampling technique was used to split Jordan into three regions. The sample included 1477 participants. A total number of eleven Maternal and Child Health Care centers were selected as the study’s site.

Results showed that parents have sufficient knowledge regarding the importance of vaccines in maintaining a child’s health, with a mean percentage of correctly answered questions of 78.7%. However, they have inadequate knowledge regarding the adverse reactions (57.5%) and the contraindications of vaccines (61.8%). Parents had positive attitudes regarding the National Immunization Program where 97% agreed with it. However, 83% of parents had negative attitudes toward vaccine safety. Parents’ work, residency, income, and age are significant determinants of parents’ attitudes, knowledge, and practice regarding children's vaccines.

The study may motivate nurses to implement more educational interventions regarding children’s vaccination to upgrade parents' knowledge with particular emphasis on parents with a low level of education and the residents of rural areas.