Factors Associated with Vaccination Coverage among Children under Five Years in Ablekuma Sub Metropolis of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

Abstract

Background: Immunization of children is one of the world's most successful public health initiatives. It has made significant contributions to public health, including the elimination of smallpox and the close to elimination of poliomyelitis. In addition to the poor coverage (44% for Penta 3) in the Ablekuma sub-metro's coverages, there is consistently a high dropout rate of >10%, which indicates inefficient use of vaccination services and necessitates quick intervention. It is critical to do research on vaccine coverage-related factors in order to raise interest in immunization services and overcome the current vaccination coverage gaps. Objective: This study therefore sought to determine the vaccination coverages and its factors influencing among the under five years of age in the Ablekuma Sub-metro in Accra Metropolis of Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Method: A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study involving the use of a questionnaire to interview mothers or caregivers with children less than 5years was adopted. A sample of 400 mothers were selected from a cluster according to cluster proportion and conveniece sampling was used to select the respondents. Face-to-face method and questionnaires were used to conduct the interviews. The following information was gathered: healthcare-related, caregiver sociodemographic variables, and features of the child caregiver's understanding of vaccinations. For analysis, data were imported into STATA version 17 from Microsoft Excel version. Descriptive statistics such as frequency tables, percentages on the data collected were presented in Tables and Charts. Vaccination record book and maternal recall were used to assess vaccination status. At a 5% level of significance, bivariate analysis was used to establish association between dependent and independent variables and multivariate logistic regression were performed to assess the independent variables influencing vaccination status . Results: The vaccinations records of the all the 400 children were assessed, the vaccination coverage by card and history was 38.5%. The rate of partial vaccination was 61.50% (246) (95% CI: 56.62-66.16%), while only 38.5% (154) of the children were fully vaccinated.. Our study establish that vaccination status between children of caregivers who were married had decreased odds of 30% of wards been fully vaccinated compared to children of caregivers who were single. The result was significant in regression analyses (AOR=0.70, 95% [CI=0.53-0.92], health service and accessibility factor was not statistically significant with vaccination status of children. Conclusion: The findings of this study noted that partial vaccination was high among children under five years in Ablekuma sub-Metro, 38,5% (154) of children from the 400 caregivers had been fully vaccinated. The following factor were found to be related with vaccination coverage among children under five years among sociodemographic factor was marital status of cavergivers can improve vaccination coverage. Health facility and accessibility factors were found not be associated with the vaccination status of children. Vaccine availability will increase assess hence improve coverages, while fear of side effects as some reasons given by caregivers will lead to partial vaccination. The medical center's staff should improve the health education programs offered during weighing sessions, ensure vaccine availiability and encourage participation by males in RCH clinics.