Assessing Community Members’ Knowledge about AEFI, Awareness about AEFI Reporting and Their Vaccine Safety Perception in Oyo State Nigeria
Abstract:
Immunization
as a cost-efficient has proven to be a successful public health initiatives, as
it prevents more than 2.5 million child fatalities yearly. Worry about the
possibility of adverse events after vaccination (AEFI) may lead to low
vaccination rates, a reduction in vaccine confidence, or return of vaccine
preventable diseases. This study aim to understand the community level
knowledge about AEFI, their awareness about AEFI reporting and perception about
vaccine safety. This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was
carried out among 422 vaccine recipients in Oyo State that have at least
received a dose of vaccine in the last 10 years. Semi- structured questionnare
was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using SPSS24 and the
descriptive statistical tools used are frequency, mean and standard deviation.
The mean knowledge score out of 10 was 6.61± 2.34 and more than half (56.2%) of the
respondents have good knowledge about the concept of AEFI. The mean awareness
scores out of 10 was 4.75±1.48
and only few (3.3%) of respondents have good awareness about AEFI reporting.
The majority (95.7%) of study respondents perceived vaccines as safe and
effective against vaccine preventable diseases, however more than half (52.9%)
of the respondents perceived that many HWs administer vaccines in a harmful
manner. This study demonstrated community members’ suboptimal awareness about
reporting system for AEFI, as well as having perception that vaccines though
safe and effective, their administration were in a harmful manner.
References:
[1] World
Health Organization, 2022, Child mortality (under 5 years). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/levels-and-trends-in-child-under-5-mortality-in-2020
[11] World Health
Organization., 2021, Adverse events following immunization (AEFI). www.who.int
[12] Jegede, A. S., 2007, What led to the Nigerian boycott of the polio
vaccination campaign? PLoS Med. 4(3), 0417-0422. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040073
