Knowledge of childhood immunization among mothers in Umueze in 0sisioma Ngwa local government area of Abia State

Abstract

Background: Childhood immunization almost guarantees protection from many major diseases, it is widely considered to be ‘overwhelmingly good’ by the scientific community. It averts an estimated 2.5 million deaths per year in all age groups from vaccine preventable diseases (VPD). Objective: To determine the knowledge of childhood immunization among mothers in Umueze in OsisiomaNgwa Local Government Area (LGA). Methods and materials: A cross-sectional study performed in Umueze Community in OsisiomaNgwa (LGA) in, Abia State, Nigeria. Self/interviewer questionnaires were administered to 480 women for the study. The collected data were cleaned, coded and entered into SPSS version 26 for analysis, Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify variables having a significant association with maternal knowledge. Result: A total of 480 women selected with a non-response rate of 30 (6.3%). Mean age was 35 ± 7.246. Majority of mothers 264 (58.7%) got information on immunization from health workers. Majority of mothers 300 (66.7%) believed that immunization is important. Three hundred and seventy (82.0%) believed that there was a benefit of immunization, 360 (80.0%) believed that immunization was free, 350 (77.8%) believed that lack of centres was the cause of reduced child immunization, 370 (82.2%) started immunizing their children after birth, 245 (54.4%) mothers gave their children all the immunization and 235 (54.7%) knew route of administration of BCG, while 355 (78.9%) women had good knowledge of immunization. Mothers who attended primary schools and above (AOR; 5.210 p = 0.002), married mothers (AOR; 4.224, p =0.03) Mothers age ≤ 35 years (AOR; 2.415 p = 0.001were statistically associated with maternal knowledgeable of immunization. Christian mothers (2.309, p = 0.12) were not statistically associated with maternal knowledge of immunization. Conclusion: Maternal knowledge of immunization is very important in immunization services.