Prevalence And Factors Associated With Missed Opportunities For Immunization Among Children Below 60 Months At Siaya County Referral Hospital.
Abstract
Background: Immunization is today one of the safest, most cost-effective, and
powerful means of preventing deaths and improving lives. Even though immunization
currently averts an estimated 2 -3 million deaths every year, an estimated 21.8
million infants worldwide are still missing out on basic vaccines. Missed opportunities
for immunization contributes to the low immunization coverage seen worldwide
adding to the pool of children who have not been effectively immunized. These
pockets of low coverage create a risk for the reintroduction of vaccine-preventable
diseases (VPDs) that have been eradicated, eliminated, or are under epidemiological
control. The Western region of Kenya has a long history of poor vaccine coverage.
The devolution of healthcare to the County provides an opportunity for a more
detailed understanding of the challenges and barriers in the local setting. This study
was conducted in Siaya, one of the counties in the Western region of Kenya.
Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with missed
opportunities for immunization among children aged below 60 months at Siaya
County referral hospital.
Methodology: This was a hospital based descriptive cross sectional study of
children seeking health services at Siaya County referral hospital. The study was
conducted between January and February 2016 at the Paediatric inpatient and
outpatient departments at the facility. The study groups included eligible
parent/guardian-child pairs and eligible health care workers who had consented to
participate in the survey. A total of 370 child-parent/guardian pairs were interviewed.
Exit interviews of the guardians of children who consented to the study was carried
out using the standard WHO tool for missed opportunity surveys. The MCH booklet
of the target child was examined to determine whether they were eligible for a
vaccine and whether it had been offered, and the reasons for missed opportunities.
In addition, a total of 116 Health Care Workers were interviewed to determine their
knowledge, attitude and practice regarding childhood immunization. Ethical approval
was sought from Kenyatta National Hospital/ University of Nairobi Ethics and Review
Committee. Data was entered into SPSS, Version 21.0 and analyzed using
descriptive statistics and chi square test. The results are presented in tables, graphs
and pie charts.
x
RESULTS: Three hundred and seventy children aged 0-60 months were included in
the survey and116 health workers interviewed. The prevalence of missed opportunity
for immunization in the study was 16.2 %.The reasons given missed opportunity for
immunization were mainly vaccine stock outs and children being unwell at the time of
immunization.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The prevalence of missed opportunity
for immunization at Siaya County referral hospital is 16.2%. Missed opportunities for
immunization can be reduced by strengthening of immunization services through
identification of reasons for vaccine stock outs and educating health workers on
immunization practices to improve knowledge on routine immunization practices.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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