Enhancing Child Immunization through Health Promotion

Introduction

The key approaches of executing health promotion for health issues include making behaviour change of individuals, promoting client-centred approach regarding health, offering health education and making change in the society to ensure improved health and well-being of population. In this assignment, the health promotion for child immunisation and its impact on the target population that is children is to be discussed. In the process, importance of health promotion and services involved in health promotion for child immunisation is to be discussed.

Describing Health Promotion

Health promotion is referred to the process implemented for allowing people to develop better control and improve their health through learning regarding the health risks and way to resolve them (Sharma, 2016). For instance, the health promotion for child immunisation informs about the probable risk and health consequences to be experienced by children without immunisation along with benefits of immunisation for children and way as well as the process to access immunisation services (Adedire et al. 2016). This has assisted in creating changes in the negative ideas and concerns regarding child immunisation ensuring to promote better health and well-being of children. The Health Belief Model is the common model followed for health promotion which is a social psychological behaviour change model. The theoretical constructs of the model mention perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, perceived severity, self-efficacy, cues to action and modifying variables are responsible to make behaviour change and they are to be focussed in successfully organising the health promotion (Mo et al. 2019). The model is to be used in organising the child immunisation health promotion as it would help to understand way of influencing parent’s beliefs, understand cognition of parents and children as target group and determine ways to motivate them for successfully executing the health promotion.

Impact of health promotion on the health and well-being of person

The impact of health promotion is that it lowers the premature death and increased prevalence of deadly diseases (Bloom et al. 2018). This is because health promotion educates people about the actions to be taken as well as risky behaviour to be avoided to ensure good health and well-being. The impact of health promotion is that it delivers knowledge to the people in the communities to overcome inappropriate stigma and wrong conceptions regarding health issues (Maisonneuve et al. 2018).

Identifying the services regarding health promotion

The service involved at the international level regarding health promotion for child immunisation is WHO and at the national level in the UK is the NHS (National Healthcare Services). The World Health Organisation (WHO) is seen to develop different health promotion program for the adolescent and parents of children to educate them regarding the importance of immunisation and the way to routinely ensure administered of the vaccine to the children at different stages from their birth (who.int, 2018). The NHS through health promotion program regarding child immunisation has focussed on screening and monitoring children and young people from birth to ensure they have been able to fully receive the services to led a better health life (phescreening.blog.gov.uk, 2016).

Defining partnership working for health promotion

The NHS England works in partnership with various other organisations such as King’s Fund London, Nuffield Trust, UK and others to uptake responsibilities and arrange resources for success of health promotion for child immunisation. This is because partnership in health promotion allows ideas from different experts to be shared to determine proper ways in which promotion is to be done to ensure its success (Grosios et al. 2010). The WHO also works in partnership with the different healthcare system across the countries to promote child immunisation services and actions for the children (who.int, 2018).

Discussing one key concept regarding target group in health promotion

The chosen field in which health promotion is to be done is Child Immunisation and the target group within the society to be selected for the promotion campaign are parents and adolescent and children. In the early years, the children are unable take proper decision and dependent on their parents from birth to ensure proper development (Rey et al. 2018). Thus, child immunisation health promotion have target group as parents because influencing them would create behaviour change to accept immunisation for child and increase administration of required vaccine for the child from birth offering them able to get proper health protection from the early years to ensure steady development. The health promotion for child immunisation has considered children as target group to screen their health and vaccination frequency to determine the efficiency of promotion in creating impact on the health of individuals. Moreover, adolescent and children are targeted in the health promotion for child immunisation to make them aware of the importance of immunisation at early stage in turn leading to act responsibility with increased age when they would have children.

There is existing misconception among people that certain immunisation received by children in the early years leads them to develop autism in later years. This has led many parents to avoid vaccination of their children as they consider it to cause bad impact on their child’s health (Maya Gogoi and Chatterjee, 2016). The health promotion for child immunisation is required in this context as through the campaign the myths and misconceptions regarding the vaccination can be debunked among the parents by providing them scientific proof and analysis. This, in turn, is going to make them aware and develop knowledge regarding importance of child immunisation leading to ensure proper vaccination of the children. The study by Kessler et al. (2019) mentions that disgust towards blood and needle leads individuals or parents to avoid vaccination of their children. This is because they feel pity for the condition of their children. The health promotion of child immunisation targeting parents and pregnant women is done so that they can be made aware regarding the way to resolve the disgust and ensure effective vaccination of their child. The health promotion regarding child immunisation is required as it is found that many parents lack proper literacy regarding the importance of vaccines to be administered to the children at different stages after birth (Oyo‐Ita et al. 2016). The health promotion would aware such parents regarding the routine to be followed and health services to be availed to ensure proper vaccination of their children.

Comparing and contrasting the way client’s health is improved due to health promotion

The health promotion regarding child immunisation has helped manifold to lower prevalence of different fatal diseases for the children as well as ensure better physical and mental health. This is because through promotion parents are made aware to routinely vaccinate their children from different deadly diseases from birth (Berezin and Eads, 2016). This is evident as promotion of child immunisation has helped to eradicate polio which is one of the key infectious viral diseases that leads to irreversible paralysis among the child from many countries including the UK. It is true from the reports which revealed that there are currently no polio cases in the UK after the last case being reported in 1984 (vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk, 2019). Moreover, most of the countries are mentioned to be polio-free expecting Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan (who.int, 2019).

The effective health promotion regarding child immunisation in the UK as well as in the world has affected to reduce the number of cases. Meningitis A is an acute infection that causes severe brain damage to the children and often leading to death (Rajasingham et al. 2017). However, with increased child vaccination promotion in the UK has led many parents to be aware to vaccinate their children against the deadly infection. It has led the prevalence of Meningitis A from 31.3 per 100,000 individuals in 2005 to 1 per 100,000 individuals in 2018 (nice.org.uk, 2006; assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2018). Moreover, the promotion of the vaccination internationally has led 60% decline compared to previous years in 2018 over the globe (who.int, 2018).

The child vaccination health promotion has also impacted to improve the health of the children over the world as well as in the UK with respect to Tetanus. Tetanus is referred to serious infection in which the bacterium Clostridium tetani forms a toxin that affects the muscles and brain to make them stiffen and develop hindered mobility among individuals (Dong et al. 2019). In 2017, within the UK only 4 cases of Tetanus was reported and the number is considered to be so low due effective tetanus vaccine being received by all individuals through the NHS Childhood Vaccination Program (gov.uk, 2020). In respect to global condition, it is reported that 38,000 people have reported dying globally in 2017 due to tetanus and it indicates 89% reduction in tetanus cases and deaths globally since 1990 (ourworldindata.org, 2018). This indicates that effective health promotion regarding immunisation among children helps to lower fatal consequences of many deadly diseases as well as lower the prevalence of the diseases both in the UK and globally.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that health promotion is required to allow people take control and preventive measures for risky diseases and health condition. The health promotion regarding child vaccination in the UK and globally are done by targeting the parents and child. This has impacted to lower prevalence and fatal consequences among children and individuals regarding various diseases such as Polio, Tetanus, Meningitis A and others. Thus, health promotion for child immunisation has helped parents of the children arrange proper vaccine at the right time after birth for them, in turn, enhancing their well-being and better health condition.

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References

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