1Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, VCSGGMS, Srinagar, Uttarakhand, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
3Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, GMC, Kannauj
4Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS, Rishikesh
5Professor, Department of Community Medicine, GMC, Kannauj
6Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, G.S.V.M.M.C, Kanpur
*Correspondence Author: E-mail: bholanath2001@gmail.com
Online published on 21 March, 2015.
In India, the newer vaccines are at present being offered as ‘optional vaccines’. Studies regarding optional vaccines in India are scarce and parents need to make informed decision regarding administration of these vaccines.
To assess the knowledge of optional vaccines among caregivers of children attending the outpatient department of Pediatrics.
To assess the utilization of optional vaccines in children aged 18–35 months attending the outpatient department of Pediatrics
Cross-sectional Study
Outpatient department of Pediatrics, in 2013
342, Systematic random sample
The overall knowledge about the optional vaccines was poor with 68.4% of the respondents having no knowledge regarding any of the optional vaccines. All the optional vaccines were prescribed and administered at the private hospitals except 40% of the MMR vaccine. A significantly higher proportion of children from urban locality, general caste, upper socioeconomic class, birth order of less than 2 and having parents with higher education were immunized with optional vaccines than their respective counterparts.
It is time for looking into the issues of newer vaccines for the control of emerging childhood illnesses.
Drop out, newer vaccines, Optional Vaccines
