Abstract:

Background: Globally, approximately 3 million people die from Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs) while over 2 million people's deaths are postponed yearly due to immunization. Due to low mother’s knowledge and practice on childhood immunization more childhood deaths are still being reported as a result of VPDs. Data regarding influence of mother’s knowledge and practices on childhood immunization are limited in many low and middle-income countries including Tanzania. The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge and practices on vaccination among mothers with children under five years of age at Kahama district.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 183 mothers (101 from rural and 82 from urban areas) with children under five years of age residing at Kahama district was conducted from April to May 2022. Data was collected by from consenting mothers using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the Statistical package for social sciences software (SPSS).

Results: The mean age (standard deviation) of the mothers was 29±0.4years and children’s mean was 29 ±1.3months. The mean number of children of participated mothers was of 4±0.2 children. Among mothers assessed on practice, majority of their children 168(91.8%) received mandatory vaccines and majority of the mothers 163(89.1%) had a good follow up on the mandatory vaccines schedule. The knowledge score of mothers in urban setting was 72% adequate, 24.4% moderate and 3.7% inadequate, while those from rural areas showed 48.5%, 38.6% and 12.9% for adequate, moderate and inadequate respectively. Mothers from urban had significantly adequate knowledge compared to those of rural areas (OR: 5.2, p=0.014).

Conclusion: Findings of this study indicate that majority of mothers from urban settings of Kahama district have adequate knowledge on vaccination compared to rural counterparts.