Factors Influencing Childhood Immunization Uptake in Africa: A Systematic Review

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Background:</jats:bold>Vaccine Preventable Diseases are still the most common cause of childhood mortality with an estimated of approximately 3 million death every year mainly in Africa and Asia and about 29% of deaths among children aged 1–59 months were as a result of vaccine preventable.Despite the benefit of childhood immunization uptake, routine vaccination coverage for all recommended Expand Program on Immunization vaccines has remained poor in some African countries such as Nigeria (31%), Ethiopia (43%), Uganda (55%) and Ghana (57%). The aim of this study is to collate evidence on the factors that influences childhood immunization uptake in Africa and also provide evidence for future researchers in developing, implementing and evaluating intervention among African populations that will improve childhood immunization uptake.<jats:bold>Methods: </jats:bold>We conducted a systematic review of articles on the factors influencing under-five childhood immunization uptake in Africa through using various keywords and we searched multiple databases (Medline, PubMed, CINAHL and Psychology and behavioural data collection) dated from inception to 2019. <jats:bold>Results: </jats:bold>Of 17,208 records citations retrieved, 240 abstracts were screened leading to 46 included studies: Thefactors that were found to influence the childhood immunization uptake were classified into modifiable and non-modifiable factors and were further classified into different groups based on its relevance. Themodifiable factors include: obstetric factors, maternal knowledge, maternal attitude and self-efficacy and maternal outcome expectation. Whereas non-modifiable factors were sociodemographicfactors of parent and child, logistic factors and administration factors.<jats:bold>Conclusion: </jats:bold>There were different factors found to be influencing under-five childhood immunization uptake among parents in Africa. Immunization health education intervention should be designed among pregnant women using social cognitive theory SCT which will enable researchers to tackle cognitive factors as well as some environmental factors that could be modifiable which may hopefully improve childhood immunization uptake in a country with poor coverage like Nigeria.</jats:p>

Estimating vaccine coverage in conflict settings using geospatial methods: a case study in Borno state, Nigeria

“…Besides conflict, other factors likely contribute to low coverage in northern Nigeria, including Borno state. These include, but are not limited to, lack of availability of immunisation services at facilities and increasing vaccine hesitancy as a result of misconceptions and low health literacy in the region 30 , 31 . Along with violence and insecurity, these challenges are substantial yet important to overcome to avoid preventable illness and death.…”