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Childhood immunization perception and uptake among mothers of under-five children attending immunization clinics in Osogbo, South Western, Nigeria


OP Adisa
CA. Akinleye
CI Obafisile
OS Oke

Abstract

Objective: Immunization is one of the most cost-effective public health intervention as it saves millions of lives annually from vaccine preventable deaths. About 20 per cent of under- five children; die from a vaccine-preventable disease annually hence, the need to determine the perception and the factors militating against the uptake of immunization among mothers of under-five children. The study aimed at determining the perception and uptake of childhood immunization among mothers of under-five children attending post-natal Clinics in Osogbo, South Western, Nigeria.
Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study with a sample size of 320 mothers selected using a systematic sampling technique. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. SPSS Version 17 was used for analysis.The level of statistical significance was set at P-values < 0.05, at the confidence interval of 95%.
Results: A significant proportion of the respondents (43.8%) were within the ages 21-30 years and 76.3% of the mothers were educated up to tertiary level. Majority of the respondents, 98.8% had good perception of immunization. About 85.7% of the children were fully immunized according to national immunization schedule. However long waiting time and inability to leave the workplace have a negative effect on uptake of immunization as 41.1 % and 31.9% of the respondents attributed the reason for missing immunization clinic days to these two factors respectively.
Conclusion: Reduction of the amount of time spent in the immunization clinic and enactment of enabling policy to ensure nursing mothers are permitted to take their children for immunization during working hours would go a long way to improve rate of immunization uptake of children.

Keywords: Perception,Uptake, Under-five, Postnatal clinic and Immunization.


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eISSN: 2467-8252
print ISSN: 2360-7793