Publication:

Immunization status of children aged 1-5 years attending tertiary care center and reasons for partial or non-immunization

Background Immunization is a reliable evidence-based approach to eradicate deadly infectious diseases. National family health survey (NHFS4) data reveals that immunization after 1 year of age dropped in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India.

Methods Our aim was to determine immunization status and reasons for partial or non-immunization of children aged 1 to 5 years in Kanyakumari district from April 2019 to March 2020. It’s a prospective and descriptive hospital-based study. Here 613 children were split-up in three categories based on ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) guidelines as fully, partially or unimmunized. The samples were analysed with IBM. SPSS statistics software 23.0 Version.

Results Of the 613 children 5 were excluded from the study due to contraindications to immunizations. Of the 608 children 529 (87%) were fully immunized, 79(13%) were partially immunized and none were unimmunized. Among partially immunized, 2 parents lacked information (2.5%), 26 parents lacked motivation (32.9%), 45 parents faced obstacles (57%) and 6 parents had other reasons (7.6%). 2 parents who lacked information were migrant laborers, illiterates and the children were home delivered. In the partial immunization, chi-square and regression analysis revealed that for female gender the p-value was 0.001, OR 2.084 with 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.347 to 3.226), for parental education the p-value was 0.0005, OR 1.561 with 95% CI (1.034 to 2.335) and for home delivery the p value was 0.0005, OR 1.564 with 95% CI (1.006 to 2.432).

Conclusions The study determines that factors associated with partial immunization are female children, illiterate/less educated parents and home delivery.