Title : Missed opportunities for vaccination among children aged 0 to 23 months in Cameroon
Abstract:
Complete childhood vaccination remains poor in Sub-Saharan African countries. Although missed opportunity for vaccination (MOV) was found responsible for low coverage, median time-to-corrected is useful to assess delay in vaccination. MOV also reflects quality of immunization service. We aim to assess its burden and associated factors, knowledge of caregivers and health personnel on MOV; reasons why MOV occurs and possible solutions to reduce it in order to increase vaccination coverage.
We first used existing survey datasets to explore its burden, incomplete vaccination coverage, describe characteristics of children who experienced corrected MOV for all antigens, and estimate median survival time. Secondly, a cross-sectional survey with mixed methods was conducted to provide insights on strategies to reduce MOV. We thoroughly used survival Kaplan-Meier analysis to estimate median time-to-corrected MOV for each vaccine. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was called to describe characteristics of children with corrected MOV and incomplete vaccination. We analyzed focus group discussion and highlight possible implementation solutions.
Second birth order children experienced more MOV than first born children. Children born to non-educated/primary level mothers had increased odds of experiencing a MOV than those born to educated mothers. Children from poorest households were at high risk of experiencing MOV for any vaccine than richest households. Identified solutions were : strengthening parents’ knowledge on vaccination, encourage health workers to systematically assessing children’s vaccination status, promoting service integration for identification of eligible children. There is an urgent need to use implementation research to reducing MOV, and increase vaccination coverage.
Audience Take Away:
- Explain how the audience will be able to use what they learn?
The work provides methodology for going through survey dataset and exploring secondary indicators that are useful for the control of vaccination coverage - Is this research that other faculty could use to expand their research or teaching?
It also provide knowledges on methods that be taught to Students, as well as how to present results - Does this provide a practical solution to a problem that could simplify or make a designer’s job more efficient?
Of course because, the work aims to show how results can be turn to implementation research strategies that are more suited in filling gaps in infectious disease outcomes.
