Assessment of immunization coverage among children of 12-23 months age group in the field practice area of Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Introduction: Immunization is one of the eight elements of primary health care. Government of India is providing immunization services through Universal Immunization Programme to protect children from some important diseases of childhood. Knowledge of mothers of beneficial children regarding immunization will influence the utilization of services. Objectives: The present study was conducted 1) To assess the immunization coverage in the children of 12-23 months of age. 2) To assess the knowledge of mothers of these children regarding immunization. Methods: It is a cross sectional descriptive study conducted in RHTC Simhachalam, the field practice area of department of community medicine, Andhra Medical College, during the period July-August 2014. One hundred and eight children in the age group of 12-23 months selected randomly and the mothers of these children were considered. A pretested semi structured questionnaire was applied. Relevant statistical tests were used. Results: Among study children 42% were male& 58% were female. All the children were fully immunized. All the mothers getting their children vaccinated in government institutions only. ASHA was the key informant (65.7%) about the immunization sessions followed by Anganwadi worker (26.9%). Among all the mothers of these children, 38% had education below primary school& 62% had more than that. Regarding knowledge, 59.3% of mothers knew the number of required visits as per schedule& but only 5.6% mothers knew about the scheduled timings of vaccine doses& diseases for which their children received immunization. Mothers with education above primary school had significantly more knowledge on number of required visits& vaccine preventable diseases than others. Conclusion: Immunization coverage and services were satisfactory. But, the mothers were getting immunized their children without adequate knowledge. This gap suggests a need for health education to mothers regarding immunization which may pave the way for future expansion of the programme.