Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Globally around 2.5 million children under five years of age die every year
due to vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization is the most effective and economical
health interventions to reduce vaccine-preventable diseases. Still, immunization coverage in
Ethiopia is low and needs further investigation.
Objective: The aim of this study was to asses complete immunization coverage and
associated factors among children aged 12–23 months in Debre Tabor Town, Northwest
Ethiopia.
Methods: Community based cross-sectional study was conducted among children aged 12–
23 months from March 1
IX
st
to March 30
th
, 2019 at Debre Tabor town. Two-stage cluster
sampling technique was used to select 824 pairs of mothers to children from the study
households. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was entered
to Epi info version 7.2.0.1 and exported to SPSS window version 20 for analysis. Binary and
Multivariable logistic regression was fitted to identify the association between dependent
and independent variables. Odds Ratios with 95% Confidence interval and P-value ? 0.05
was considered to assert significance.
Result: A total of 824 mothers/caretakers were interviewed and almost all of the children
took at least a single dose of vaccine. The complete immunization coverage was 80.2% with
(95% CI: [77.5, 83%]). The odd of complete immunization was; 6 times higher among
mothers who gave birth at health facility than at home (AOR 6.29 [95% CI: 2.21, 17.96]),
who had planned pregnancy were 4 times higher to completely immunize their children than
who did not (AOR 4.08 [95% CI: 2.20, 7.55]). Mothers those who had home visit by health
workers were 3 folds higher than who did not (AOR 3.37 [95% CI: 2.13, 5.33]). Mothers who
had good knowledge were 3 times higher to completely immunize their children than those
with poor knowledge (AOR 3.48[95%CI: 2.25, 5.38]).
Conclusion: The prevalence of complete immunization coverage was found to be low
among children aged 12–23 months compared to Ethiopia 2019/20 target. Mothers who
deliver at health facility, who had planned pregnancy, home visit by health workers and
knowledge of mother on immunization were associated factors. Promoting institutional
delivery and improving mother?s knowledge on child immunization intend to be
strengthened.
Keywords: Complete immunization coverage, Children, Debre Tabor town, Ethiopia
