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Vaccine knowledge, awareness, and hesitancy among Malaysian parents attending health clinics in Sandakan, Sabah
James Yau Hon Voo1, Baharudin Ibrahim2, Mohamed Azmi Hassali3, Foong Ming Moy4.
Introduction: There has been a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in Malaysia over the recent years. In overcoming this issue, parents as the main caregiver of their children play a major role, which is to protect their children against diseases via vaccinations. This study aimed to examine the parents’ vaccine knowledge, aware-ness, and hesitancy in relation to their children’s immunisation status and to determine the association between the parents’ vaccine knowledge, awareness, and hesitancy. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a sample size of 405 parents was conducted in the Sandakan health clinics from February 2018 to April 2018 by employing validated questionnaires adapted from two studies. Results: The median ± IQR of the total vaccine knowledge and awareness scores (ranging from 0-10) were 7.00±3.00 and 8.00±4.00, respectively. Meanwhile, the median ± IQR of the total vaccine hesitancy scores (ranging from 0-100) was 16.67±20.00, with only 27 (6.8%) parents being vaccine-hesitant (scores >50). Most of the children (n=376, 92.8%) were immunised in the study. It observed a significant association between the children’s immunisation status and the parents’ vaccine knowledge scores (p = 0.005). Nevertheless, the children’s immunisation status was not significantly associated with the parents’ vaccine awareness and hesitancy scores. The positive Spearman correlation value (r = 0.551) signified that the parents’ vaccine knowledge was posi-tively associated with their vaccine awareness. On the other hand, both the vaccine knowledge and awareness were negatively correlated to the vaccine hesitancy as indicated by the negative Spearman correlation value (r = -0.397 and r = -0.351 respectively). Conclusion: The study established that the parents with a better understanding about vaccinations were more likely to keep their children’s immunisation up-to-date. It was also revealed that improving the parents’ knowledge and raising their awareness about the importance of vaccination are vital in reducing their vaccine hesitancy.
Affiliation:
- Duchess of Kent Hospital (Malaysia), Malaysia
- Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
- Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
- University of Malaya, Malaysia
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Indexation |
Indexed by |
MyJurnal (2021) |
H-Index
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3 |
Immediacy Index
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0.000 |
Rank |
0 |
Indexed by |
Scopus 2020 |
Impact Factor
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CiteScore (0.2) |
Rank |
Q4 (Medicine (all)) |
Additional Information |
SJR (0.144) |
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