Assessment of Knowledge Regarding Vaccine Preventable Diseases among Anganwadi Workers in District Amritsar, Punjab

Anganwadi worker (AWW) is a key functionary or key volunteer at Anganwadi centre to provide the package of services. Immunization is one of the very important health services under ICDS. The AWW should have adequate knowledge regarding each and every aspect of immunization. So the present study was conducted to assess the knowledge of AWW about the vaccine preventable diseases and the vaccine available for them under National Immunization Schedule.

The present study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine, SGRDIMSAR, Amritsar. A total of 189 AWW were chosen by stratified random sampling method. The data was collected from AWW using predesigned & pretested questionnaire. Pre-test & post-test assessment was done to assess the knowledge about vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine available for them. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 version.

The study reveals that 44.4% of the AWW were in age group of 31–40 years. 47.1% of AWW knew correctly about the number of diseases for which vaccine is available under National Immunization Schedule. The knowledge regarding various aspects of Vaccine preventable diseases was found to increase with increase in education level. There was improvement in the knowledge scores in the post test and the difference was statistically significant.

The AWW are the key persons who will promote the good practices of services related to ICDS to enhance the health and nutritional status among mothers and children. There is a need to provide quality training to AWW to increase their knowledge regarding the diseases and vaccines available for them.