Factors influencing missed opportunities for vaccination among children aged 0-23 months within the Hohoe Municipality: A facility-based study.

Abstract

Abstract Background Immunization is a crucial public health strategy for increasing child survival by directly addressing major diseases that kill children as well as serving as a foundation for other health services. Every year, more than 31 million children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by diseases that are preventable by vaccination and more than half a million pass away because they lack access to the needed vaccines. Missed Opportunities for Vaccination (MOV) hinder Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 which seeks to guarantee healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages from being reached. The study sought to determine the factors impeding MOV among caregivers with children aged 0-23 months in the Hohoe municipality. Methods A cross-sectional design was deployed in the study. Structured questionnaires were administered to caregivers with children aged 0-23 months within the sampled health facilities in the Hohoe municipality using registers from the child welfare clinic (CWC). A total of 378 caregivers between the ages of 18 years and above were recruited to participate in the study. Kobo Collect version 1.30.1 was used for data collection and was exported into an Excel format for analysis using STATA version 16. Results A total of 378 caregivers with children aged 0-23 months participated in this study. The study found the prevalence of MOV to be (22.2%). The mean ±standard deviation (SD) of the knowledge scores was 1.8 ± 0.4 and the attitude score was 1.6 ± 0.5. Most caregivers (80%) had poor knowledge on immunisation and more than half (63.8%) showed a positive attitude towards immunisation despite their poor knowledge. Multivariate analysis revealed that caregivers’ knowledge [cOR= 2.14(1.05,4.38) p<0.001] and attitude [aOR=3.12(1.81,5.37) p<0.001] were predictors of MOV. Conclusion MOV is prevalent in many settings and it impedes immunisation coverage. Knowledge and attitude of caregivers were associated with missed opportunities. Findings from the study showed a high proportion of caregivers with poor knowledge regardless of their good attitude towards infant vaccination. Hence, there is a need to intensify strategies to raise their knowledge to help combat missed opportunities in the Hohoe municipality.