Mother’s Awareness About Zero Dose Of Hepatitis B Vaccination For Their New Born Baby At Birth

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a potentially life threatening liver infection. It is a major global public health problem and known to cause chronic hepatitis with high risk of mortality resulting from hepatic cirrhosis and cancer. Objective: The study aimed to assess mother’s awareness about zero dose of Hepatitis B vaccination for their new born baby at birth. Study Design: A descriptive research design was used in this study to meet the aim of the study. Setting: The present study was conducted at Maternal and Child Health Center in Makkah. The study involved 224 mother’s attending the previous setting in child bearing period, infected or free from hepatitis B infection through two days per week Tools for data collection: Two tools were used to collect the necessary data: Tool I: An interviewing Question[1]naire included the following parts;

Part 1 : Socio- demographic data of the studied mother. Part 2: Mother's knowledge assessment questionnaire the mother’s knowledge about (a) Hepatitis B virus infections, (b) zero dose of Hepatitis B, mothers practices regarding vaccinated against hepatitis.

Part 3: Mothers practices regarding screening for Hepatitis B during antenatal period,Tool II: Vaccination examination attitude scale of studied mothers. Results: Based on the results and research question of the present study it can be concluded that; more than half of the studied mothers had average level of knowledge about zero doses vaccination and hepatitis B infection, more than one third of them had good knowledge. While, less than quarter of them had poor level of knowledge. Also, it was found that there was more than half of the studied mothers had negative attitude regarding zero dose of hepatitis B virus vaccination. While, less than half of them had positive attitude. Conclusion: The study showed that, there was highly significant positive correlation between total mother`s knowledge about zero dose of hepatitis B virus infections and their practice. While there was significant positive correlation between total mother`s knowledge and their attitude. Also there was significant positive correlation between total mother`s practice and their attitude. Recommendation: Emphasizes the need to enhance the public health education efforts to improve hepatitis B knowledge among women in reproductive age. Increase awareness regard the benefits of hepatitis B vaccine, concerns about vaccine safety for newborn were prevalent.