Mothers and vaccination: knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour in Italy

The study evaluates knowledge, altitudes, and behaviour of mothers regardin g the immunization of 841 infants who attended public kindergarten in Cassi no and Crotone, Italy. Overall, 57.8% of mothers were aware about all four mandatory vaccinations for infants (poliomyelitis, tetanus, diphtheria, hep atitis B). The results of a multiple logistic regression analysis showed th at this knowledge was significantly greater among mothers with a higher edu cation level and among those who were older at the time of the child's birt h. Respondents' attitudes towards the utility of vaccinations for preventin g infectious diseases were very favourable. Almost all child ren (94.4%) we re vaccinated with all three doses of diphtheria - tetanus (DT), oral polio virus vaccine ( OPV), and hepatitis B. The proportion of children vaccinate d who received all three doses of OPV, DT or diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis ( DTP), and hepatitis & Vaccines within 1 month of becoming age-eligible rang ed from 56.6% for the third dose of hepatitis B to 95.7% for the first dose of OPV. Results of the regression analysis performed on the responses of m others who had adhered to the schedule for ail mandatory vaccinations indic ated that birth order significantly predicted vaccination nonadherence, sin ce children who had at least one older sibling in the household were signif icantly less likely to be age-appropriately vaccinated. The coverage for th e optional vaccines was only 22.5% and 31% for measles-mumps-rubella and fo r all three doses against pertussis, respectively. Education programmes pro moting paediatric immunization, accessibility, and follow-up should be targ eted to the entire population.