A study on impact of an educational programme on immunization behaviour of parents.

A study was conducted to measure the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of parents of children 0-5 years of age in respect of expanded programme on immunization (EPI) target diseases. These variables were studied before and after educational programme. Before education of the parents, it was observed that increase in awareness of the target diseases was quite impressive, while improvement in knowledge about signs and symptoms of diseases, vaccines to prevent the diseases and immunization schedule were less evident. The attitude towards immunization was good and improved further with education. It was also observed that the increase in knowledge with regard to location of immunization centre and days on which services available was significant. Compared with improvement in knowledge and attitude ranging from 30 to almost 100 percent, the improvement in acceptance of vaccines was only within 6 to 10 per cent. Since the study time was short, the acceptance of all the required doses of all the vaccines could not be ascertained. Furthermore, the gap between KAP was as expected. However, strong motives are required or if motives are week, a compensatory strengthening of situational factors is called for to make the KAP easy and possible.

PIP: The knowledge, attitude, and practice of parents of children in Bangladesh 0-5 years of age with regard to immunization were measured before and after an educational program. The survey population included 60 mothers and 40 fathers. The educational program consisted of group discussions led by local leaders on The World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) target diseases, home visits, and a film showing. The educational program produced an increase in knowledge, ranging from 13% to 37%, regarding signs and symptoms of all the EPI target diseases (diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis). Also noted were increases of 27-32% in knowledge about vaccines. Only 1-2% of respondents had knowledge of the EPI vaccination schedule before educational intervention; this statistic increased to 24-44% after the program. Before the education programs 77% of parents agreed that child immunization is necessary; after the program, 100% agreed. Also noted was an increase from 41% to 95% in the number of parents who agreed to take their child to an immunization center. In the 100 families surveyed, there were 147 children under 5 years of age. The educational program produced an 8.9% increase in vaccine acceptance. Reasons for nonacceptance included ignorance of the vaccines (27%), carelessness on the part of the provider (43%), nonavailability of the vaccine (16%), communication problems (6%), fear of side effects (8%), and travel problems (6%). Overall, these results suggested a substantial increase in knowledge and attitude as a result of education, but a lack of dramatic improvement in actual vaccine acceptance. It is noted, however, that the short duration of the study (2 months) may have led to an underestimate of actual vaccine acceptance.

Disease profile in respect of health services of Upazila health complex.

This study was carried out to identify the disease profile in relation to medical services at upazila health complex. Thirty different types of diseases were identified. Diarrhoeal diseases were found to be highest (53%), the second highest was intestinal worms (44%). About ninety seven percent patient attended the OPD and only 2% were attended in the emergency Department. On average 172 patients were admitted per month and the highest of admission was found in the months of September and October. The average length of stay in the hospital was 11.6 days. Among the patients admitted 55% were male, and 45 were female. 5% pregnant mothers attended in U.H.C. for antenatal checkup and 2% mother were admitted into the hospital after delivery. Metronidazole was the drug of highest consumption followed by B-Complex and Penicillin.

Study on quality assessment of neonatal tetanus cases admitted in the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Dhaka.

This study was conducted at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Mohakhali, Dhaka through an interview schedule and check list. The study population comprised of attendants of 64 neonatal tetanus cases. It has been observed that majority of neonatal tetanus patients came from low socio-economic condition. The follow-up records of 45% admitted cases did not include complete salient features. Treatment was not reviewed in majority of cases within 6-12 hours. Progress reports of serious cases were not maintained properly in about 50% cases. Case fatality rate was very high (64.46%) and recovery rate was only 12.4%. Standard criteria and norms should be developed as to measure the performance in terms of quality assurance of neonatal tetanus cases to justify the cost effectiveness.