Is mothers’ knowledge and practice regarding childhood immunization compliant with immunization completeness?

Background: Immunization is one of the most effective, safest and efficient public health interventions. Despite the concrete efforts of government and other health agencies, a large proportion of vulnerable infants and children in India remain unimmunized. In order to improve immunization coverage, factors such as knowledge, attitude and practices of parents/caretakers are known to contribute to success or failure of immunization program. The aim of present study is to assess the knowledge and practice of mothers with respect to immunization completeness of their child. Methods: This is a descriptive cross sectional study involving 364 mothers attending immunization OPD in Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India during month of September till December 2015. Results: 78.5% children were completely immunized as per date. 57.97% of the study population was found to have adequate knowledge-practice scores. A significant association of immunization completeness with KP scores of mothers (p<0.05) was found. Conclusions: Future efforts are required to improve immunization rate and parents' knowledge and practice.