Study on Immunization Among the Mothers of Under Five Children, Halaga Village, Belgaum, Karnataka

A descriptive survey was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude on immunization among the mothers of under five children, Halaga village, Belgaum, Karnataka.

Objectives of the study:

1. To assess the knowledge on immunization among the mothers of under five children.

2. To assess the attitude towards the immunization among the mothers of under five children.

3. To co-relate the knowledge and attitude of immunization.

4. To find out the association between knowledge and attitude of immunization with the selected demographic variables.

Descriptive approach and non experimental design was used in this study. The setting of the study was Halaga village of Belgaum, Karnataka. The sampling technique used was convenient and purposive sampling .A sample size of 50 mothers of under five children were selected for the study. A self reporting questionnaire prepared by the researcher was used as the tool. The tool consisted of three parts .Part 1-The demographic data. Part 2- Questionnaire to assess the knowledge on immunization and Part 3- Attitude scale on immunization. The data was analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The demographic variables were analyses by frequency and percentage. To determine the relationship between knowledge on immunization and square test was used to associate demographic variables with knowledge and attitude on immunization.

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Majority of the respondents were in the age group of 21-25 years, 64% were belongs to Hindu religion, 56% of family's income below 2000, 42% of mothers were having 2 children, 76% of mothers stayed in joint family, 92% of mothers were educated, 98% of mothers possessed immunization card, 50% came from middle class, 92% of mothers had earlier heard about immunization. The mean knowledge value on immunization of mothers of under five children was 58.1and attitude score was 41.4 .This indicates that the mothers of under five children have moderately adequate knowledge on immunization and positive attitude towards immunization. The correlation between knowledge on immunization and attitude of mothers showed that there is a positive correlation between knowledge on immunization and attitude (r=0.483). This suggests that the mothers of under five children had positive attitude though they possess moderately adequate knowledge. Chi-square test revealed that there is no significant association between knowledge on immunization and selected demographic variables. Based on the findings of the researcher has drawn the following implications which are of vital concern for the field of nursing practice, administration, education and research, which are as follows:

1. The nurse should give adequate health education to the people in the community setting as well as hospital set up on immunization, immunization schedule, advantages, contraindications etc and prevention of communicable diseases.

2. The nursing students must have a topic on immunization in nursing curriculum. 3. The nursing administrator should focus on health programme through home visit, mass health programmer etc. Health workers can be given training in practice and management of immunization.

4. For nursing research further steps can be taken to assess the effectiveness of nursing staffs in handling immunization.

CONCLUSION: The mothers of under five children of rural community area had moderately adequate knowledge on immunization and moderate positive attitude towards immunization. These findings reveal that the community health nurses should make little more efforts in educating the mothers so as to achieve 100% of immunization.