Publication:

A study of vaccination delay among under-five attendees at an immunisation clinic in a rural area of Goa

Background Vaccination has effectively shown to reduce mortality and morbidity due to vaccine-preventable diseases. However, these diseases are still responsible for majority of childhood deaths worldwide especially in the developing countries. It should be realized that with hesitance or delaying vaccinations, the period that the child at risk increases. Hence, the following study was conducted.

Methods A cross sectional study was carried out among 251 under-five immunization clinic attendees at an immunization clinic conducted at the Rural Health and Training Centre in Goa for a period of two months. Parents of the under-five children were interviewed and vaccination dates were obtained from health cards and vaccination delay was assessed.

Results Out of the total 251 study participants, 43.4% were males and 56.6% were females; 36.7% belonged to 2 years of age group. The education of the mothers and fathers of under five children, upto secondary education was 50.6% and 55.4% respectively and 31.5% of the study participants belonged to high socio-economic status. It was observed that 31% of the study participants (n=78) had a vaccination delay whereas 69% (n=173) of them were vaccinated on time. The reasons for delay in vaccination included unawareness, forgetfulness, sickness and migration. A statistically significant association was found between age, working status, socio-economic status and vaccination delay (p<0.05).

Conclusions Strategies must be evolved to educate the parents in the study area to have greater awareness regarding the immunization programmes.