Vaccine-preventable diseases are responsible for severe rates of morbidity and mortality in Africa. Despite the availability of appropriate vaccines for routine use on infants, vaccine-preventable diseases are highly endemic throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Widespread disparities in the coverage of immunization programmes persist between and within rural and urban areas, regions and communities in Nigeria.
This study assessed the individual- and community-level explanatory factors associated with child immunization differentials between migrant and non-migrant groups.
Methods: The proportion of children that received each of the eight vaccines in the routine immunization schedule in Nigeria was estimated. Multilevel multivariable regression analysis was performed on a nationally representative sample of 6029 children from 2735 mothers aged 15-49 years and nested within 365 communities. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to express measures of association between the characteristics.
Results: The pattern of full immunization clusters within families and communities. Findings provide support for the traditional migration hypotheses, and show that individual-level characteristics, such as, migrant disruption (migration itself), selectivity (demographic and socio-economic characteristics), and adaptation (health care utilization), as well as community-level characteristics (region of residence, and proportion of mothers who had hospital delivery) are important in explaining the differentials in full immunization among the children.
Conclusions: Migration is an important determinant of child immunization uptake. This study stresses the need for community-level efforts at increasing female education, measures aimed at alleviating poverty for residents in urban and remote rural areas, and improving the equitable distribution of maternal and child health services.
Author: Diddy Antai Credits/Source: BMC Public Health 2010, 10:116
