Abstract:
Background: All immunizations carry a potential risk of being associated with adverse events. Adverse events (AEFI) is defined as any unwanted medical occurrence which follows immunization and does not necessary have a causal relationship with the use of the vaccine. The identification, recording, reporting and monitoring of adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is essential to the investigation and reduction of such cases. This study was to assess factors influencing reporting of AEFI among health staff and care givers of children under 12 months in Ketu South Municipality.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the Ketu South Municipality among 422 caregivers and 60 health staff. The number of care givers included in the study were distributed proportionately to each of the 56 Child Welfare Clinics based on the target population of children below one year. Care givers were selected randomly until predetermined sample size was obtained. Purposive sample technique was also used to select health staff for the study. Separate questionnaire was used to collect primary data from both care givers and health staff. The data was analyzed using Stata version 15. Descriptive analysis, Chi square test and logistic regression were conducted to determine associations and strength of association.
Results: The trend analysis after review of hospital records showed there was under reporting of AEFI cases in DHIMS 2. Majority (68.3%) of the health staff knew the full meaning of AEFI and about 15.0% of health Staff identified pain, swelling or redness at site of injection as sign and symptom of AEFI. No association was found between socio-demographic characteristics of health staff and the tendency to report AEFI cases (p>0.05). Socio-demographic characteristics of care givers, relationship with child, and number of children of a care giver influenced reporting of AEFI. Less than half of care givers who reported (33.3%) AEFI cases got feedback from the health staff.
Conclusion: Inadequate knowledge of health staff in Ketu South on AEFI due to lack of training on the AEFI, bulky reporting forms, too technical reporting procedure and lack of feedback health staff to care givers were identified factors that influence reporting of AEFI in Ketu South. Health staff should be trained to educate and encourage caregivers to report AEFI to improve public confidence in immunization programme.
