Abstract:
Globally, an indicator of greater health outcome of every individual is the acquisition of the recommended childhood immunization at a certain age. It is in this necessity and recognition that government-subsidized vaccinations programs are a must in every country, to ensure that every individual has access and opportunity to achieve optimal protection and quality life. In the Philippines however, the percentage of fully immunized children at 70% (National Demographic and Health Survey, 2017) has yet to be addressed to achieve the ideal rate of at least 90%.
With this in mind, the main outcome of the present study is to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of Filipino mothers aged 20 to 44 years old towards childhood immunization. These mothers, as the primary caregivers of their child aged 12 to 23 months old, access the recommended vaccines through health centers in District II, Caloocan City. Sequential explanatory design was employed in this research, in which 310 mothers agreed to participate in the self-administered survey questionnaires for the quantitative phase. Proceeding to the qualitative phase, follow-up interviews were conducted with 12 mothers and 4 nurses. All of the data provided by the participants were analyzed through the full use of SPSS and analysis were composed of descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation. Information gathered from the key informants was analyzed through content and thematic analysis. Results generated from the study revealed that Filipino mothers have fair knowledge regarding the basic functions of immunization. Factors affecting their knowledge is the sources of information that is readily available to them as well as the educational attainment of the mothers. They also have developed negative attitude as they believed that vaccines have poor implications on their child’s health. This is greatly associated with the Dengvaxia controversy that evidently instilled fear and doubt with respect to the potential harm of vaccines. Still, results showed that they remained steadfast in having their child vaccinated. Gaps in health services were also disclosed such as shortages in vaccines supply, insufficient health workers, and substandard infrastructures.
