Abstract

Background: Vaccines are important in preventing and reducing the occurrence of many various diseases, so population knowledge and attitude about childhood vaccination is critical to try to enhance their knowledge and correct their attitude toward vaccines.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to assess the knowledge and attitude about childhood vaccination and compare that between urban and rural areas in Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods: The study was made in Riyadh, representing urban areas and Rumah, representing rural areas, during the month of July 2014. An observational cross-sectional study was used. The data were collected by distributing questionnaire forms to the subjects.

Results: The main results indicate that people living in Rumah do not know more than three diseases that are prevented by vaccines whereas people living in Riyadh know three or more diseases that are prevented by vaccines. The major age group was 18–30 years. Most of the subjects have at least one child to be vaccinated in both Riyadh and Rumah.

Conclusion: Significant differences of knowledge and attitude about childhood vaccination were found between urban and rural areas. Similar studies should be carried out on a bigger scale.

Key words: Childhood; Vaccination; Urban; Rural