An old issue, but important. FN Indian Pediatrics 2005; 42:401-402
Immunization Status of Children in Goa We conducted a study to review the immunization status of children in Goa, to identify risk factors for under immunization and to suggest measures to improve immunization coverage, A pilot study was carried out in Pediatric ward of Department of Pediatrics, Goa Medical College for a period of one year followed by a study using the WHO 30 cluster method) n different parts of Goa over a period of 6 months from December 2000 to May 2001. The study sample consisted of 362 children with 12 children from each cluster in 12-23 months age group. A child was said to be fully immunized if he/she had received one dose of BCG, 3 doses of OPV and DPT and one dose of measles at the end of 12 months age. Anything less was considered as partial immunization and if the child had not received any immunization, he was considered as unimmunized. The immunization coverage for Goa can be summarized as 85.35% children fully immunized, 11.87% children partially immu-nized and 2.76% children unimmunized. The coverage for individual vaccines was BCG (94.7%), OPV1 (96.7%), OPV2 (95.8%), OPV3 (9o.6%), DPTl (96.1%), DPT2 (95%), DPT3 (90.6%), Measles (88%), Hepatitis B (19%), MMR (5%). The immunization coverage levels by individual characteristics are presented in Table I. Characteristics Fully Immunized Partially Immunized Unimmunized Total 85.3 11.9 2.3 Gender Male 84.6 13.8 1.6 Female 86.2 9.8 4 Birth Order 1 86.6 12.2 1.1 2 88.8 9 2 3 69.2 23 7.6 4 75 0 25 Religion Hindu 83.7 13.9 2.4 Christian 97.8 2.2 0 Muslim 56 28 16 Residence Rural 80 16.7 3.3 Urban 90.6 7.1 2.3 Mother's education Uneducated 70.8 22.1 7 Primary 91.2 6.8 1.9 Secondary 90.7 9.2 0 Graduate 100 0 0 Father's education Uneducated 56 20.6 23.5 Primary 75.3 21.9 8.7 Secondary 89.8 10.2 0 Graduate 98.5 1.4 0 Socio-economic status Class I 100 0 0 Class II 95.8 4.2 0 Class III 92.1 7.9 0 Class IV 81.7 15.6 2.6 Class V 48.6 32.4 19 Household size <3 98.4 0.6 0 3-6 85.4 12.3 2.3 >6 68 23 The main reasons for non immunization were found to be lack of information and obstacles to immunization. The results of our study are comparable to some of the other recent studies in Goa who found a similar coverage(2,3), but were in sharp contrast to the reported figures of 100% coverage by the Health Services(4). This shows that the reported figures are a gross overestimation of the actual immunization coverage. This also stresses the need for coverage surveys from time to time to assess immunization coverage instead of relying on the reported coverage. In our study we found that children with high birth order, Muslim religion, those residing in rural areas, children with low parent education and socioeconomic status and those from high household size had significantly low immunization coverage levels compared to children from other groups (P <0.05). Also a trend analysis showed improvement in immunization status with improvement in parent education, socio-economic status and decreasing family size. Ashwin Dalal, M.P. Silveira, Department of Pediatrics, Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa. Correspondence to: Dr. Ashwin Dalal, Senior Resident, Department of Medical Genetics, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Raibarelly Road, Lucknow. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
