Vaccination coverage in children resident in a rural community in Nigeria: socio-ecological and contextual determinants

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The national vaccination coverage rate and the coverage rate in rural communities in Nigeria are below the global vaccine action target of 80%; hence, evaluation of factors that determine vaccination status and determine the proportion of children aged 12–59 months who are fully immunised in the rural community should be conducted. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using an interview-structured questionnaire that was pilot tested before being administered. In the study, a two-stage sampling technique was used and the sample size was determined using the EPI-Info, version 7, software. Key Findings Of the 608 caregiver–child pairs that was assessed, the majority (525, 86.35%) were mothers. Assessment of immunisation status showed that the majority of the children (429, 70.56%) were completely vaccinated while 179 (29.44%) were incompletely vaccinated. Educational status (χ 2 = 59.85, df = 4, P < 0.001), the level of knowledge about vaccination (χ 2 = 77.62, df = 2, P < 0.001), family setting (χ 2 = 27.70, df = 3, P < 0.001), maternal ANC visits (χ 2 = 85.37, df = 2, P < 0.001), type of birth (χ 2 = 7.27, df = 2, P = 0.03) and child’s breastfeeding status (χ 2 = 80.75, df = 2, P < 0.001) were all significantly associated with the vaccination status of the child. Conclusion The study has shown that immunisation coverage in the rural community surveyed is still below the expected target; thus, public health intervention should still focus on individual, community, socio-cultural and healthcare-related factors as this will improve the immunisation status of children in rural communities.