Assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of parents and service providers’ perceptions on invalid vaccine doses: A study in urban slums of Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the parental attitude, knowledge and practice regarding valid vaccination schedule of child immunization and identify the reasons for providing invalid vaccine doses. A cross-sectional, mixed-method study design was used to conduct in randomly selected urban slums of Bangladesh. Among the 456 respondents, 99.34% had good experience in vaccination services, and 95.83% believed that this service increased their children’s immunity. But only 31.36% had adequate knowledge about the number of vaccinations provided by the routine immunization program, and only 4.17 % knew about invalid vaccine doses. The parent’s knowledge level was significantly associated with mothers’ education (p-value: 0.042) and media exposure (p-value: 0.014). The immunization practice was significantly associated with the number of living children (p-value: 0.004). Majority of the respondents (96.71%) reported that no one informed them about the invalid dose of the vaccine. According to service providers the service charges, urban-living people’s mobility, NGO field staff workload, and inadequate training were the major causes of providing invalid vaccine doses in urban slums. It is recommended that service providers might engage the slum authority in immunization activity to mobilize the slum people about the vaccination program to create awareness among them and ensure valid vaccination doses.