SteelFisher GK, et al. - Researchers conducted a polling study to assess caregivers' commitment to oral polio vaccine (OPV) in districts of Afghanistan at high risk for polio transmission and to examine what knowledge, attitudes, or experiences could threaten commitment. As per findings, they recommended enhancing OPV commitment. For this, they suggested the utility of considering a multifactorial approach including building trust in vaccinators, providing facts about transmission, sharing positive messages to overcome key rumours, and strengthening community support for vaccination.

Methods

• Among caregivers of children under 5 years of age, a poll using face-to-face interviews was designed and analyzed.
• Researchers used a stratified multistage cluster design with random route household selection to drew the sample.
• Calculation of percentage of committed and uncommitted caregivers was performed.
• Weighing of all percentages was done.
• Comparison of percentages of uncommitted caregivers among those with varying knowledge, attitudes, and experiences was performed, using logistic regression to control for possible demographic confounders.

Results

• 1980 caregivers were interviewed between Dec 19, 2014, and Jan 5, 2015.
• Of these, 21% were “uncommitted” to accepting OPV.
• Observations revealed an association of multiple measures of knowledge, attitudes, and experiences with lack of commitment, for instance, compared with their relevant counterparts, caregivers are more likely to be uncommitted if they did not trust vaccinators “a great deal” (54% vs9%), if they do not know that polio spreads through contaminated water (41% vs 14%), or if they believe rumours that OPV is not halal (50% vs 21%).