Knowledge and Attitudes of Postpartum Mothers Towards Immunization of Their Children in a Lithuanian Tertiary Teaching Hospital

Sufficient vaccination coverage among children depends on parents' knowledge and attitudes towards immunization and their intention to have their children vaccinated. The objective of the study was to evaluate postpartum mothers' knowledge and attitudes towards children's immunization. It was a cross-sectional survey. The anonymous questionnaire was handed out to postpartum mothers selected at random in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno Klinikos from March to July of 2014. In total, 300 women were surveyed. The majority (63%) of respondents had higher education. The child was the first one for 49.7% of the mothers. The women indicated that their main sources of information about children's vaccination were the doctor, the Internet and mass media. Most respondents (87.3%) considered vaccine-preventable diseases to be dangerous but only 57.3% of them knew that vaccines provided efficient protection. Only 57% of the respondents considered vaccines to be safe but 75.3% thought that the benefits of vaccines were greater than the risks. We evaluated the knowledge as good in 36.3%, average in 41.3% and poor in 22.3% of mothers. Most of the respondents (81.3%) planned to immunize their child in the future with all the vaccines included in the national immunization program, however, 72.7% were worried about possible adverse events following vaccination. Of the mothers whose knowledge was evaluated as good, 74.8% had never refused or had doubts about having their child immunized (τ = -0.198, < 0.001). The mothers with better knowledge were also less likely to be concerned (τ = 0.211, < 0.001). Evaluation of postpartum mothers' knowledge and attitudes towards children's immunization could be the tool for better communication between health professionals and parents leading to increased vaccination rates.