Childhood immunization delay during the first wave of COVID-19 in an urban area of Sangli district from Maharashtra, India: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background COVID-19-related lockdowns had resulted in overburdening on health services. The lockdowns along with anxiety of the disease have resulted in delay in routine vaccination of many under-5 children. The current study was undertaken to understand the extent of the delay in under-5 vaccination during COVID-19-related lockdown in March-December 2020. Methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted during January-December 2021. Study population was under five children due for vaccination during the first COVID-19 lockdown at March-December 2020. Vaccination cards were used to confirm the status of vaccination, and questionnaire was used to study the attitude of parents towards vaccination and reasons for delay in vaccination, if any. The calculated sample size was 1434. But cluster random sampling method was applied; hence, 2274 subjects were included in the study. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS-22™, using descriptive statistics and chi-squared test. Results Percentages of children with delayed vaccination ranged from lowest for “at birth dose” (12.47%) to highest for “9th month dose, i.e. MR vaccine” (54.29%). Majority of parents stated lockdown and risk of COVID-19 infection as to be reason of the delay in vaccination. There was no uniform association between vaccination delay and attitude of parents towards vaccination. Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown are the reasons stated by majority of parents with delayed vaccination in their children. This could be important lesson to plan for such contingencies for developing health services in future.