A cross-sectional study on knowledge and practice of caregivers of under-5 children regarding EPI

Abstract

Background: The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is one of the most successful and cost effective public health interventions for vaccine-preventable diseases of under-5 children in Bangladesh. Complete and timely immunization of under-5 children largely depends upon the knowledge and practice of caregivers’ regarding vaccination. Evaluating caregivers’ knowledge and practices regarding EPI is necessary to find out the gaps and enhance immunization services. Objective: To assess the knowledge and practice of caregivers of under-5 children regarding EPI at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute, Dhaka. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from 8th to 22nd February 2025 among caregivers of under-5 children attending the outpatient department (OPD) and EPI centre of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute, Dhaka. The knowledge and practice of the caregivers regarding EPI were assessed using 8 questions on knowledge and 5 on practice, assigning a score of 1 for each correct response and 0 for each incorrect response. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection and the final sample size was 148. The data were analysed via SPSS (version 31.0). Results: The mean age of the under-5 children was 16.12±12.37 months (mean±SD) and the majority (53.4%) of under-5 children were aged 0-12 months. The study population included 50.7% males and 49.3% females. The majority were Muslim (72.3%) and resided in urban areas (70.3%). More than three-fifths (62.2%) of the caregivers reported health centres as their source of knowledge about EPI. Three-fourths (75%) of the participants had adequate knowledge, while the majority (95.3%) demonstrated good practices regarding EPI. Conclusion: The results of our study revealed that the majority of the participants had an adequate level of knowledge and demonstrated good practice regarding immunization of under-5 children. The majority first heard about vaccination from health centres and were aware that tuberculosis, measles, rubella, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccine. However, most of the participants lacked knowledge that vaccine can prevent diseases like meningitis and pneumonia also.

DS (Child) H J 2025; 41(1): 31-35