Parents’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Misconceptions Towards Vaccination Practices for Their Children, as Determined by a Cross-Sectional Study in the City of Nalut, Libya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/ajmsi.v4i2.5404Keywords:
Childhood Vaccinations, Direction, False Beliefs, KnowledgeAbstract
The study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and misconceptions of parents about the practice of childhood vaccinations. The study followed a descriptive, analytical approach in a cross-sectional study of workers in several schools (middle and high school), in addition to those attending the Sidi Khalifa Health Vaccination Center in the city of Nalut. The sample totaled 1,024 participants, and 24 participants were excluded. The questionnaire was distributed to the participants in addition to a face-to-face dialogue with the participants. The questionnaire consists of four axes: The first axis talks about the demographic characteristics of the participants, then three axes in order about the wrong beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of parents about practicing vaccinations for their children. From December 2022 to July 2023, the study was conducted and the results were analyzed using SPSS. The results showed that the average age of the sample was 25-30 years. The educational level of the participants was 609 (60.9%) for those with university degrees. Marital status was divided between married (719), divorced (169), and widows (112). There was a correlation between the age of the participants and misconceptions about vaccinations (P-value< 0.05). It was also found that the level of misconceptions was low among the participants. The attitude of the participants towards the practice of vaccinations was positive 56.80%. It was also found that there was a correlation (P-value< 0.05) between the attitude towards practicing vaccinations and the educational level of the participants (36.78%) and their knowledge of vaccinations. An association was also found between the marital status of the participants and their tendency to practice vaccinations (X² = 163.815, P = 0.000).
Downloads
References
Alsuwaidi, A. R., Elbarazi, I., Al-Hamad, S., Aldhaheri, R., Sheek-Hussein, M., & Narchi, H. (2020). (Vaccine hesitancy and its determinants among Arab parents: a cross-sectional survey in the United Arab Emirates. Human vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 16(12), 3163-3169 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2020.1753439
Alyami, A. R., Alhashan, G. M., Nasser, I. A., Alyami, S. R., Al Mardhamah, N. H., Alyami, M. H., ... & Alanazi, A. M. (2018). (Knowledge, beliefs and practices of parents towards childhood. The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine, 70(1), 1-7. https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/article_11499_42cf55fa991df8022428fba6298bf70e.pdf
Al-Zahrani, J. (2020). (Knowledge, attitude and practice of parents towards childhood vaccination. Majmaah Journal of Health Sciences, 1(1), 23-23. https://www.mjhs-mu.org/index.php?mno=287964
Azizi, F. S. M., Kew, Y., & Moy, F. M. (2017). (Vaccine hesitancy among parents in a multi-ethnic country, Malaysia. Vaccine, Science Direct, 35(22), 2955-2961 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X17304723
Benin, A. L., Wisler-Scher, D. J., Colson, E., Shapiro, E. D., & Holmboe, E. S. (2006). (Qualitative analysis of mothers’ decision-making about vaccines for infants: the importance of trust. American Academy of Pediatrics, 117(5), 1532-1541 org/pediatrics/article-abstract/117/5/1532/70005/Qualitative-Analysis-of-Mothers-Decision-Making
Borràs, E., Domínguez, À., Fuentes, M., Batalla, J., Cardeñosa, N., & Plasencia, A. (2009). (Parental knowledge of pediatric vaccination. BMC Public Health, 9, 1-7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2458-9-154
Facciolà, A., Visalli, G., Orlando, A., Bertuccio, M. P., Spataro, P., Squeri, R., ... & Pietro, A. D. (2019). (Vaccine hesitancy: An overview on parents’ opinions about vaccination and possible reasons of vaccine refusal. Journal of public health research, 8(1), jphr-2019.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4081/jphr.2019.1436
Giambi, C., Fabiani, M., D’Ancona, F., Ferrara, L., Fiacchini, D., Gallo, T., ... & Rota, M. C. (2018). (Parental vaccine hesitancy in Italy–results from a national survey. Vaccine, 36(6), 779-787 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X17318376
Gust, D. A., Darling, N., Kennedy, A., & Schwartz, B. (2008). (Parents with doubts about vaccines: which vaccines and reasons why. American Academy of Pediatrics, 122(4), 718-725. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/122/4/718/71378/Parents-With-Doubts-About-Vaccines-Which-Vaccines
Hak, E., Schönbeck, Y., De Melker, H., Van Essen, G. A., & Sanders, E. A. (2005). (Negative attitude of highly educated parents and health care workers towards future vaccinations in the Dutch childhood vaccination program. Vaccine, 23(24), 3103-3107. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X05001143
Kallas-Silva, L., Couto, M. T., Soares, M. E. M., Ferreira-Silva, S. N., & Avelino-Silva, V. I. (2025). (Myths and misinformation associated with vaccine incompleteness: A survey study. Patient Education and Counseling, 131, 108556.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738399124004233
Kalok, A., Loh, S. Y. E., Chew, K. T., Aziz, N. H. A., Shah, S. A., Ahmad, S., ... & Mahdy, Z. A. (2020). Vaccine hesitancy towards childhood immunization amongst urban pregnant mothers in Malaysia. Vaccine, 38(9), 2183-2189. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X20300694
Luman, E. T., McCauley, M. M., Shefer, A., & Chu, S. Y. (2003). (Maternal characteristics associated with vaccination of young children. American Academy of Pediatrics, 111(Supplement_1),1215-1218. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/111/Supplement_1/1215/28596/Maternal-Characteristics-Associated-With
Mbonigaba, E., Yu, F., Reñosa, M. D. C., Cho, F. N., Chen, Q., Denkinger, C. M., ... & Chen, S. (2024). Knowledge and trust of mothers regarding childhood vaccination in Rwanda. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 1067. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-024-18547-1
McKee, C., & Bohannon, K. (2016). (Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of vaccines. The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics, 21(2), 104-109. https://jppt.kglmeridian.com/
Verulava, T., Jaiani, M., Lordkipanidze, A., Jorbenadze, R., & Dangadze, B. (2019). (Mothers’ knowledge and attitudes towards child immunization in Georgia.The Open Public Health Journal, 12, 232-237. https://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/9099/
WHO. (2018). World Health Organization. Vaccines and immunization.https://www.who.int/health-topics/vaccines-and-immunization#tab=tab_1
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Amira Saleh Khalifa Bagni, Aminah Issa Masud Aljerbi, Huda Said Khalefah Askar, Nada Abdalhakim Ali Warragh, Aya Mohammed Essa Alkhamaesi

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.