Immunization coverage among children aged 0-23 months at a tertiary hospital, Southwestern, Nigeria: a retrospective study

Immunization coverage in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed at assessing the immunization coverage and dropout rates of children aged 0-23 months at a tertiary hospital in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria.

Methods: This retrospective descriptive study reviewed the routine immunization data of children immunized at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, between January and December 2021. A proforma created on Microsoft Excel 2015 was used to extract data from the NHMIS register. Also, analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 2015 to generate the frequencies and proportion graphs.

Results: The mean coverage rate of administered antigens was 58.9%; BCG had the highest coverage (74.9%), MCV 2 had the least (39.0%), and persistently low coverage with a nadir in January (16.7%) while coverage for the other antigens ranged from 57.6% to 61.5%. The BCG coverage was consistently high except for June, September, and October but peaked in May (133.3%) when the Pentavalent 1 vaccine had the highest coverage. Other vaccines had less than 80.0% coverage except in July, where Yellow fever and MCV 1 had coverage of 82.0%. Overall, there was a sharp drop in the dropout rate from January (78.0%) to March (27.0%); the least was Penta 1 to Penta 3 (6.3%), then BCG to MCV 1 (19.8%) while the highest was MCV 1 to MCV 2 (35.0%).

Conclusion: The vaccine coverage rate was suboptimal, with an unacceptably high dropout rate, especially for vaccines with longer intervals. Measures to improve vaccine coverage and reduce dropout rates, such as daily immunization and reminders to caregivers, are necessary.