Factors affecting age-appropriate timeliness of vaccination coverage among children in Lebanon

Abstract

Background: The effect of immunization does not only depend on its completeness, but also on its timely administration. Routine childhood vaccinations schedules recommend that children receive the vaccine doses at specific ages. This article attempts to assess timeliness of routine vaccination coverage among a sub-sample of children from a survey conducted in 2016. Methods: This analysis was based on data from a cross-sectional multistage cluster survey conducted between December 2015 and June 2016 among caregivers of children aged 12-59 months in all of Lebanon using a structured survey questionnaire. The analysis used Kaplan–Meier curves and logistic regression to identify the predictors of age-appropriate immunization. Results: Among the 493 randomly selected children, timely administration of the third dose of polio vaccine, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP)-containing vaccine and hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine occurred in about one-quarter of children. About two-thirds of children received the second dose of a measles-containing vaccine (MCV) within the age interval recommended by the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). Several factors including socio-demographic, knowledge, beliefs and practices were found to be associated with age-appropriate vaccination; however, this association differed between the types and doses of vaccine. Important factors associated with timely vaccination included being Lebanese as opposed to Syrian and being born in a hospital for hepatitis B birth dose; believing that vaccination status was up-to-date was related to untimely vaccination. Conclusions: The results suggest that there is reason for concern over the timeliness of vaccination in Lebanon. Special efforts need to be directed towards the inclusion of timeliness of vaccination as another indicator of the performance of the EPI in Lebanon.

Timely completion of vaccination and its determinants among children in northwest, Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis

“…In terms of timeliness, we found that that almost twothird of the children were not vaccinated on-time either being early or late from the recommended time schedules. These findings corroborate the findings of other studies most of which reported higher proportion of delays in child vaccinations [10,13,27,33,49,[60][61][62][63][64] This study also pointed out that only half of fully vaccinated children were timely for all the vaccine doses. This indicates that merely relying on vaccination coverage overestimates population immunity, as it does not account for delays in protection and extended susceptibility to preventable diseases.…”

Timely completion of vaccination and its determinants among children in Northwest, Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis

“…In terms of timeliness, we found that that almost two-third of the children were not vaccinated ontime either being early or late from the recommended time schedules. These findings corroborate the findings of other studies most of which reported higher proportion of delays in child vaccinations (10,13,27,33,49,(60)(61)(62)(63)(64) This study also pointed out that only half of fully vaccinated children were timely for all the vaccine doses. This indicates that merely relying on vaccination coverage overestimates population immunity, as it does not account for delays in protection and extended susceptibility to preventable diseases.…”

Measles and mumps outbreaks in Lebanon: trends and links

“…4, 52.26% of people who contracted measles were unvaccinated. A recent study by Mansour et al, found several factors that hinder vaccination, and these include socio-demographics, as well as knowledge, beliefs and practices associated with age-appropriate vaccination [36]. Mothers may perceive that the vulnerability to disease lessens with older age considering the first dose as the main source of protection whereas boosters are regarded as add-ons.…”