ABSTRACT
Introduction: Social marketing is a key strategy to influence the health seeking behavior of human beings on a large scale. Although social marking approach is applied to address a variety of social concerns, it also has a vital role in the health promotion and disease prevention.
Objectives: 1-To elaborate the source of social marketing for the promotion of routine immunization among children under-5 years. 2-To assess the determinants of social marketing in term of promotion of routine immunization
Material and Methods: The survey was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics of the Rehman Medical Institute [RMI] Peshawar KPK over a period of two months. Self-administered questionnaire-based survey was used to address the objectives. The questionnaire catered to the four Ps [Promotion, Personnel, Partnership, and Proof] that are the basic themes of social marketing applicable for promotion of immunization. Parents of children under-5 years of age were included as subjects. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 15.0
Results: A total of 63 parents were surveyed during two months of data collection period. About 54% of them were unaware about National immunization days. However 84% had got information about immunization, where 63% had got information from print media and perceived that the information was sufficient to convince them
Conclusion: Social marketing is an effective tool in ensuring health seeking behavior especially in immunization of under-5 year children; however health promotion activities by vaccinators, others health care professionals and governmental and non-governmental organization linked with low immunization are lacking in the region