Children not receiving adequate immunization in Ibadan, Nigeria: what reasons and beliefs do their mothers have?

BACKGROUND Immunization coverage in most areas in Nigeria has remained low with continued high morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases. OBJECTIVES To identify the reasons and beliefs about immunization among mothers whose children have not received adequate immunization or not at all. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The study was a descriptive cross sectional survey that involved mothers trading in a large market in Ibadan who had children between the ages of 12 and 23 months. Data were collected by means of a semi-structured questionnaire. Mothers who did not immunize or failed to completely immunize their children were selected for analysis. RESULTS A total of 248 mothers were interviewed, their mean age was 27.3 5.5 years (range 16 42 yrs). The commonest reasons for incomplete immunization included: non availability of vaccines (26.2%), not being aware of need for additional doses (16.5%) and inconvenient time/venue (13.7%). Logistic regression analysis showed that Mothers with no formal education were about six times more likely than those with secondary education and higher to give reasons related to lack of motivation (95% CI OR = 1.88 17.93). Analysis of the mothers' beliefs on immunization were as follows; 186 (75.0%) believed it was beneficial, 161 (64.9%) believed that immunization will save the life of the child and 129 (52.0%) believed that taking the child to the clinic for immunization wasted a lot oftime. CONCLUSION Most mothers in this study agreed that immunization is beneficial. It is therefore recommended that routine immunization be strengthened, vaccines made readily available and mothers educated on the immunization schedule.