EFFICACY OF VACCINATION COUNSELLING ON AWARENESS, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN RAJASTHAN, INDIA

  Lack of awareness about the various vaccine preventable diseases and the huge risk of mortality and morbidity associated with the diseases like Chicken-pox, Typhoid, Hepatitis-A and Hepatitis –B is a challenge that needs urgent attention especially in adolescents. To assess the efficacy of vaccination counselling on the awareness, attitude and practices related to Chicken-Pox, Typhoid, Hepatitis-A and Hepatitis –B among school going adolescents using some of the constructs of Health belief model. A Pretest-Post test study was conducted among 502 school going adolescents studying in 9th, 10th and 11th standards to assess the efficacy of vaccination counselling on the awareness, attitude and practices related to vaccination against Typhoid, Chicken-pox, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B, using a pre-tested structured questionnaire after getting permission from the school authorities and verbal consent from the respondents. The pre-test (T1) scores were low in all the three components of awareness, attitude and practices. After vaccination counselling, the post test (T2) scores increased, for all the components, the difference being statistically significant (p