International Journal of Academic Scientific Research ISSN: 2272-6446 Volume 5, Issue 2 (May - June 2017), PP 86 - 95 | Page 86 www.ijasrjournal.org The Educational level and vaccination knowledge among parents in Dawadmi-Saudi Arabia, 2014. Ibrahim Alenazi, Fayez Alruwaili, Abdullah Aljumayi, Abdulelah Alqahtani, Abdullah AlGhamedi, Hammad Alsaad, Mohammad Alharbi, Abdullah Alnakhli, Khaled Alsuhaibani, Bahaa Fetiha College of medicine and medical science, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. ABSTRACT Background: vaccinations are important to our children and their health. Parents' knowledge about the importance of vaccination is affected by many factors, one of them is the level of education. There are some parents does not know about the benefit of vaccination and they vaccinate their children because it's mandatory. Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge of parents about vaccination in 2014 in Dawadmi city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its relationship to the educational level. Methodology: Across-sectional study to assess the relation between parents' educational level and their knowledge about vaccination using a questionnaire in Arabic and English forms. Results: A total of 343 parents were included in the final analysis. The study shows an increasing in parents' knowledge with increasing their education level. 91.9% of university educated parents, 72.6% of primary or secondary educated parents and 45.5% of parents who read and write are known that the vaccination prevents disease. Conclusion and Recommondation: Although the vaccination knowledge considered higher in this study group, but there should be an increase in doctor recommendation and advices especially for low educated parents. Keywords: knowledge, vaccination, Saudi Arabia Introduction Infections are the most common cause of human disease [1] .Although routine vaccination is a major tool in the primary prevention of some infectious diseases, there is some reluctance in a proportion of the population. Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide. Immunization prevents between 2-3 million deaths every year. Parents’ knowledge about immunization and their attitudes towards them are likely influence uptake [2]. Previous studies revealed misconceptions on parents’ knowledge and negative a ttitudes towards childhood immunization. Mothers’ knowledge about vaccination was found to be quite low and their educational status was significantly associated with child’ s coverage [ 3]. Negative attitude, for example mothers fear from vaccination, was found to be significantly affected the immunization status of their children. [4]. Immunizations have had an enormous impact on improving the health of children in the United States. Most parents today have never seen first-hand the devastating consequences that vaccine-preventable diseases have on a family or community. While these diseases are not common, they persist around the world. It is important that we continue to protect our children with vaccines because outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases can and do occasionally occur in this country. Vaccination is one of the best ways parents can protect infants, children, and teens from 16 potentially harmful diseases. Vaccine-preventable diseases can be very serious, may require hospitalization, or even be deadly – especially in infants and young children . Childhood immunization-inducing immunity by applying a vaccine – almost guarantees protection from many major diseases. Childhood vaccination prevents two million deaths per year worldwide and is widely considered to be overwhelmingly good by the scientific community. However , 2.5 million deaths a year continue to be caused by vaccine-preventable diseases, mainly in Africa and Asia among children less than 5 years old. Vaccination coverage has now reached a plateau in many developing countries, and even where good coverage has been attained, reaching children not yet vaccinated has proved difficult.