Determinants of Immunization Coverage in Children 12-23 Months in Miga Local Government Area, Jigawa State Nigeria

Abstract

Background: There are high reported cases of pentavalent 3 vaccines dropout and low immunization coverage in Miga local government area (LGA), Jigawa State, Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the determinants of the low immunization coverage in children aged 12-23 months in order to formulate/recommend public health interventions to revitalize the routine immunization activities in the Local government area. Method: This is a cross-sectional study (using the WHO cluster sampling technique) conducted among 390 care givers who have eligible children between 12-23 months old using structured free tested questioner on routine immunization activities to find out the determining factors responsible for the low immunization coverage and high dropout rate of pentavalent vaccines. A stratified sampling method was used to select 30 clusters from 186 settlements. The Data collected was analyzed using the excel spread sheet and determinants responsible for the low coverage were identified. Results: After differential analysis of the data collected, 5 factors were identified: maternal education, mass media exposure, community education and awareness campaign on routine immunization all other factors that prevented child from visiting health clinic such as not trusting vaccine by the parent, permission not granted by the husband, cost of transportation to the clinic ,non execution of planned outreaches by the health workers as major determinants responsible for wide gap in routine immunization coverage in the local government area. Conclusion: Low immunization coverage has debilitating consequences on the lives of the children. To improve the immunization uptake, it is recommended that health education/promotion programs that focus on meeting the needs of the caregivers of the eligible children as well as continual social support should be developed and be part of the LGA's holistic public health/promotion program to save the underserved children.