Immunization Coverage: Role of Sociodemographic Variables

Children are considered fully immunized if they receive one dose of BCG, three doses of DPT and polio vaccine each, and one measles vaccine. In India, only 44% of children aged 12–23 months are fully vaccinated and about 5% have not received any vaccination at all. Even if national immunization coverage levels are sufficiently high to block disease transmission, pockets of susceptibility may act as potential reservoirs of infection. This study was done to assess the immunization coverage in an urban slum area and determine various sociodemographic variables affecting the same. A total of 210 children were selected from study population using WHO’s 30 cluster sampling method. Coverage of BCG was found to be the highest (97.1%) while that of measles was the lowest. The main reason for noncompliance was given as child’s illness at the time of scheduled vaccination followed by lack of knowledge regarding importance of immunization. Low education status of mother, high birth order, and place of delivery were found to be positively associated with low vaccination coverage. Regular IEC activities (group talks, role plays, posters, pamphlets, and competitions) should be conducted in the community to ensure that immunization will become a “felt need” of the mothers in the community. 1. Introduction Immunization is often cited as being one of the greatest public health achievements of 20th century, [1] but effective immunization requires population coverage levels of 90 to 95% depending upon the vaccine-preventable disease [2]. Immunization coverage refers to information on the proportion of children who have received specific vaccines or are up to date with the recommended vaccine schedule. This information is essential for planning immunization programmes, identifying vulnerable groups or areas that require targeting of increased resources, assessing the acceptability of a programme, and predicting likely vaccine-preventable disease epidemics [2]. Children are considered fully immunized if they receive one dose of BCG, three doses of DPT and polio vaccine each, and one measles vaccine. In India, only 44% of children aged 12–23 months are fully vaccinated and about 5% have not received any vaccination at all [3]. In spite of 20 years of efforts and millions of dollars poured into Universal Immunisation programme (UIP), our coverage rate has still not crossed the 50% mark. Immunization coverage showed improvement since National Family Health Survey-1 (NFHS-1), when only 36% of children were fully vaccinated and 30% had not been vaccinated at all. But there was