Factors influencing immunization coverage among children under five in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region Ghana
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Date
June, 2019
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Abstract
Immunization is one of the most essential public health interventions to reduce child
morbidity and mortality in Ghana and the world at large. However, many children still
died from causes which could have been prevented through extensive immunization
coverage. The main objective of this study was to identify factors influencing
immunization coverage among children under-five years of age (0-59 months) in the
Jirapa District of the Upper West Region.
A total number of 370 mothers of children under-five were chosen for this study and
structured questionnaires were administered by visiting the households of under-five
nursing mothers. Twenty (20) out of 137 communities were selected by simple
random sampling and 5% (was calculated as a ratio based on the 2010 total number of
under five children in that community) of mothers of children 0-59 months were
chosen as respondents from each of the twenty communities.
Descriptive statistics were used to describe demographic characteristics and
knowledge level of mothers/caregivers and other independent variables, while the
associations between these factors were determined using logistic regression.
The study found out that the immunization coverage in the Jirapa District was
remarkable high with majority (87.03%) of the children being vaccinated and good
client satisfaction. It was also realized that some maternal and community
characteristics such as education, occupation and age of the mother contributed
significantly to child‟s vaccination status. This study also found strong connection
between mothers‟ knowledge in child immunization and their level of education.
Mothers who had attained Senior high school (SHS) education and above were almost
twice more likely to have good knowledge of vaccination and were also more likely to
vaccinate their children up-to-date. This means that support for women education to
SHS and above as a long term measure will increase immunization coverage.
In the study, it was found out that many mothers had positive attitude towards
immunization and positive perception on the attitudes and practices of health workers
to immunization activities and those that had positive attitude toward immunization
were 3 times more likely to vaccinate their children up-to-date.
It is recommended that regular quality refresher training of health workers especially
the volunteers to improve their knowledge and practice on immunization services
should be organized.
Vaccination of child should be made a compulsory requirement during enrolment of
children to school.
Description
A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of
the degree of Master of Public Health (Mph) in Population
and Reproductive Health.
Keywords
Immunization, Children, Jirapa district, Upper West, Ghana