Assessment of the Level of Utilization of Immunization Services Among Nursing Mothers in Some Local Government Areas of Benue State, Nigeria

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The study investigated the level of utilization of immunization services among nursing mothers in some local government areas of Benue state. Descriptive cross sectional research design was adopted and multistage sampling procedure was employed. The questionnaire for the respondents titled assessment of the levels of utilization of immunization services among nursing mothers (ALUISNM). The study population consists of 1,500 nursing mothers in selected LGAs of Benue State. Mean, standard deviation were employed to analyze the data obtained from the respondents, while the null hypothesis was verified using the t-test of ANOVA. It can be deduced that the height of utilization of immunization services amongst the nursing mothers in Benue State is fair. The result that 765 (54.3%) utilized immunization services against 670 (45.7%). The result pointed out that there is high level of utilization of immunization services among women with secondary education (57.6%) followed by those with tertiary education. Based on socio economic status immunization were utilized more by women who are unemployed and self-employed with (56.0%) and (55.3%) respectively. Based on location of immunization services, utilization was more by the urban women (60.0%) than semi urban and rural women. Also based on religion utilization of immunization is higher with those of Islam traditionalist than the Christians. The utilization of immunization services and factors such as socio-economic status [F(2,(1462) = 1.139, p>0.05], location [F(2,(1462) = 2.249, p>0.05]. and religion [F(2,(1462) = 0.528, p>0.05] showed no verifiable significance differences. But there was a significant difference with regards to education [F(3,1461) = 15.773, p<0.05]. Conclusively, there was positive level of utilization of immunization services from the study and therefore recommended that issues like location of health facilities, awareness, education etc should be addressed.