ATTITUDE TOWARDS VACCINATION: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY AMONG THE PARENTS IN SUNGAI PETANI, KEDAH, MALAYSIA

Purpose: To evaluate parent's attitude towards childhood vaccination and to determine the factors associated with non-adherence of parents to the mandatory vaccination schedule in Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia. Methods: a Validated questionnaire was used as an instrument for evaluating parent's attitude regarding childhood vaccination. Data obtained was classified based on Bloom's cut-off point for determining parents' attitude. For the analysis of data SPSS version 20 was used and P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: a total of 396 parent's attitude was evaluated for obtaining different factors associated with the unscheduled vaccination. A significant difference was observed in parents attitude based on gender (P-value = 0.0.21). It was found that parent's income has a prominent impact on the parent's attitude and can be considered as a potential barrier in the provision of proper immunization of children against fatal diseases (Phi= 0.329, P-value <0.001). By education level, parents in the postgraduate level of education were having a good attitude (SD +/- 4.15, Mean Rank = 39.01) in comparison to other categories of educational background (P-value <0.001). A significant difference was observed among the parents living in rural and urban areas (P-value<0.001,Phi = 0.298). No significant association found based on religious beliefs or ethnicity. Conclusion: Lack of parents' belief in vaccines and their unawareness affects their attitude towards childhood vaccination. Educating parents through interactive mass media awareness campaigns can help eliminate public health issues related to vaccine-preventable diseases.