Determinants of pentavalent and measles vaccination dropouts among children aged 12–23 months in The Gambia

Abstract

Background Every year, vaccination averts about 3 million deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). However, despite that immunization coverage is increasing globally, many children in developing countries are still dropping out of vaccination. Thus, the present study aimed to identify determinants of vaccination dropouts among children aged 12–23 months in The Gambia. Methods The study utilized cross-sectional data obtained from the Gambia Demographic and Health Survey 2019–20 (GDHS). The percentage of children aged 12–23 months who dropped out from pentavalent and measles vaccination were calculated by (1) subtracting the third dose of pentavalent vaccine from the first dose of Pentavalent vaccine, and (2) subtracting the first dose of measles vaccine from the first dose Pentavalent vaccine. Generalized Estimating Equation models (GEE) were constructed to examine the risk factors of pentavalent and measles vaccinations dropout. Results Approximately 7.0% and 4.0% of the 1,302 children aged 12–23 months had dropped out of measles and pentavalent vaccination respectively. The multivariate analyses showed that when caregivers attended fewer than four antenatal care sessions, when children had no health card or whose card was lost, and resided in urban areas increased the odds of pentavalent dropout. On the other hand, when women gave birth in home and other places, when children had no health card, and being an urban areas dweller increased the odds of measles dropout. Conclusion Tailored public health interventions towards urban residence and health education for all women during ANC are hereby recommended.

Exploring the Pattern of Immunization Dropout among Children in India: A District-Level Comparative Analysis

“…This shows that the likelihood of defaulting from completion of child vaccination was greater among mothers/caregivers residing in urban areas across all antigens, in the wake of rapid urbanization in recent years. This study was consistent with studies conducted in other parts of the world that revealed a failure to cater to the urban poor and slum population, and this is considered as an obstacle to achieving complete vaccination [11,26,[31][32][33]. A possible explanation of these findings may be the loss of access to health facilities in urban slums and the lack of advice regarding the benefits of child vaccination that causes mothers/caregivers to default from child immunization.…”

“…At present, there is 93.6% coverage for DPT1 and 86.7% coverage for DPT3 in India. A handful of studies have investigated the reasons behind dropout after the first dose of DPT or oral polio vaccine (OPV) globally, albeit within a very limited scope [24][25][26][27]. Therefore, there is a need to explore the factors contributing to the dropout cases from vaccination in India from the time of first vaccine is scheduled (BCG) to the last vaccine in the schedule (MCV1) which is given in the first year of life.…”

Determinants of routine immunizations dropout among children less than five years of age in Ethiopia: A further multilevel analysis from mini 2019 EDHS

“…This analysis showed that the dropout of Pentavalent 1-3 was 26.7%. The dropout rate of pentavalent 1-3 is almost similar with the pooled prevalence of vaccination dropout, which was reported to be 26.06% in sub-Saharan Africa (Natnael et al, 2022) and Much higher compared to the systematic reviews and meta-analyses that reported 7.0% and 4.0% among children aged 12-23 months, respectively, in Gambia (Peter et al, 2022); and the dropout rate of Pentavalent 3 is lower compared to the studies done in Nepal (30.4%) (Supri and Attarkhel, 2020).…”

“…A wealth quintile is a measure of the relative economic status of a household within a population, usually divided into ve groups from poorest to richest (Ntenda et al, 2022).. This study depicted immunization dropout decreases as the level of wealth quintile increases from poorer to richer compared to those in the poorest wealth quintile category.…”

Spatial variability and uncertainty for under-vaccination and zero-dose in fragile settings: A model-based study of immunization coverage in Chad

“…Additionally, in this article, we assessed the association of vaccination with conflict in an exploratory and covariate selection procedure for which the association was statistically weak. Reaching people in fragile and conflict-affected settings is documented [12,58] but will require an expanded understanding of other population-level contextual, vaccine demand and uptake, cultural factors, socio-demographic factors and supply-side factors of vaccine delivery not considered here [59][60][61].…”