Factors contributing to the low measles immunization coverage among under five children in sesheke district.

Abstract

Every child who comes to the health institution or is visited in the community for the purpose of receiving immunizations is entitled to safe and quality health care which should be provided by health care providers. With the current economic difficulties and competing priorities for health, the immunization programme has experienced several difficulties including lack of transportation (especially for conducting outreach services), lack of health worker training, broken cold chain equipment, inadequate supervision and shortage of staff. All these factors have led to low immunization coverage despite availability of effective vaccines. This study was conducted to determine the factors influencing low measles immunization coverage in Sesheke District and suggested ways of minimizing them. The immunization status of the children was determined by interviewing mothers regarding their children's immunization histories. Each child's immunization card was subsequently reviewed for confirmation. The health workers were provided with a self administered questionnaire which they filled in. The mothers were selected using a systematic sampling method and the health workers were selected using a convenient sampling method. The pilot study was conducted at Yeta clinic within Sesheke before the data collection. Due to limited time and financial support available for the study the investigator had to select an accessible area and small sample size of fifty participants, forty mothers and ten health workers. After data collection, quantitative data was grouped manually and qualitative data was analyzed manually using data master sheets and scientific calculator. The presentation of data was done in frequency tables, pie charts, and graphs. Cross tabulation were used to determine the relationship between variables.The findings of the study were majority of the respondents 80 % reported that the measles immunization coverage was low, there was inadequate staff and immunization sessions at the health facility were done fortnightly. Long distance to the health facility and lack of community participation were also found to be contributing factors. The findings of the study support the first hypothesis which says, "distance to the health facility influences the immunization coverage, and not the second hypothesis which says "attitude of the staff can improve immunization coverage"