Shahzad Akhtar Aziz, Mirza Inamul Haq, Mahmoodur Rahman, Asim Zulfiqar.
Sociocultural influences on childhood vaccination programmes.
J Rawal Med Coll Jan ;14(1):49-50.

Background : To appraise the perceptions and beliefs of parents pertaining to early child hood immunization and categorize the socio-cultural factors affecting poor coverage of Expanded Programme of Immunization . Methods : In this descriptive cross sectional study, mothers, being the main individual responsible for child’s vaccination, were enrolled for the study . They were randomly selected on the basis of having one child less than 1 year old and visiting the rural health centre at least twice in a fortnight. Results: In total 208 mothers were incorporated in the study. Unvaccinated children mostly belonged to uneducated mothers. Thirty seven percent of the respondents believed polio vaccine contains contraceptive medicines. Sixty nine percent of the mothers were in favour of vaccinating the male child only while 18% wanted to vaccinate the female child. Majority (73%) believed that vaccination is allowed in Islam and 86 percent stressed for the female vaccinators . Conclusion : Effort to increase vaccination coverage should take into account the socio cultural aspects.

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