Vaccination Coverage and Associated Factors among Children in Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Vaccination is a proven tool to prevent and eradicate communicable diseases. It can prevent more than 2.5 million child deaths each year. However, many children are still left unvaccinated and still die from communicable diseases in developing countries. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the vaccination status in children at Debre Berhan town, Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out from June 2017 to September 2017 in Debre Berhan town. A total of five kebeles were included in the study to collect data from 621 study participants. The data were entered into EPI-Info version 7 and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software. Only 73% of children were fully vaccinated. Vaccination for oral polio 0, pentavalent3, and measles was done in 47.3%, 79.7%, and 72.6% of the children, respectively. About 19% of the children did not receive any vaccination. The dropout rate for Bacillus Calmette Guerin to measles, pentavalent1 to pentavalent3, and pneumococcus vaccine (PCV) 1 to PCV3 was 10.7%, 1.8%, and 0.6%, respectively. In multivariable analysis, mother's educational status (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.102; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.022-0.487), distance from the vaccination site (AOR: 4.669; 95% CI: 1.498-14.547), number of antenatal care (ANC) visits (AOR: 4.472; 95% CI: 1.209-16.543), and income of mother per month (AOR: 2.192; 95% CI: 1.112-4.323) were associated factors for unsuccessful vaccination. The vaccination of children was still low in Debre Berhan town. Distance, family income, education, and number of mothers' ANC visit were associated factors for the low coverage of vaccination. Health intervention programs including encouraging awareness of the community is important to achieve the recommended vaccines among children.