Immunization and Nutritional Status Survey of Children in selected Rural Communities of Sokoto State

Abstract

Summary 

Objectives: Immunization coverage and anthropometry of a community constitute a good index for measuring child-health status for that community. We therefore, Studied the anthropometry, and the coverage of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) vaccines in randomly selected rural communities of Sokoto State.

Design: Cross-sectional randomized study.

Method: One hundred and fifteen mothers of children present at the randomly chosen :sites on the days of the study were interviewed using pre-tested questionnaires. Information on the immunization status was based on parental recall, and this was mostly confirmed by a review of individual immunization cards, while nutritional assessment was based on weight-for-age data.

Results: The 115 children (56 males, 59 females) were aged less than six years (mean age, 4.71 + 1.24 years). Fully, partially, and not immunized proportions of the 115 were seven percent, 73.9 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively. Male immunization rate was significantly higher than the female (P<0.05). 62.5 percent, 85.9 percent and 86.4 percent respectively, of fully, partially, and non immunized children were malnourished. The immunization coverage for all the vaccines was low compared to the national and other published data. All the mothers were full-time housewives with only 3.5 percent having elementary/Koranic education while 96.5 percent had no formal education. All the 22 children that had not received any immunization were offsprings of mothers with no formal education.

Conclusion: "The study showed that the paediatric preventive services as represented by the immunization coverage and nutritional status in these communities, are poor. Therefore, in order to achieve health for all in these communities, there is a need to further evaluate the possible causes and machineries to tackle them.

Key words: Childhood, Immunization status, Anthropometry, Rural communities.