"Girl Power!": The Relationship between Women's Autonomy and Children's Immunization Coverage in Ethiopia

Jane O Ebot

doi:10.1186/s41043-015-0028-7

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough immunizations are efficient and cost effective methods of reducing child mortality, worldwide, approximately 2 million children die yearly of vaccine-preventable diseases. Researchers and health organizations have detailed information on the positive relationship between women’s autonomy and children’s health outcomes in developing countries.MethodsThis study investigates the links between women’s household autonomy and children’s immunization status using data from a nationally representative sample of children aged 12–30 months (N = 2941) from the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey.ResultsThe results showed that women’s socioeconomic status and household autonomy were significantly associated with children’s immunization status.ConclusionOverall, the implications of this study align with those of the Millennium Development Goal #3: improvements in women’s household autonomy are linked to more positive child health outcomes.

Highlights

Immunizations are efficient and cost effective methods of reducing child mortality, worldwide, approximately 2 million children die yearly of vaccine-preventable diseases
Woldemicael and Tenkorang analyzed the association between women’s autonomy and health-seeking behavior in Ethiopia and the results showed that more autonomous Ethiopian women were more likely to access health care compared to Ethiopian women with little household autonomy [14]
The 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) was approved by the Ethiopia Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) Review Board, the National Research Ethics Review Committee (NRERC) at the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Institutional Review Board of ICF, and the CDC

Summary

Introduction

Immunizations are efficient and cost effective methods of reducing child mortality, worldwide, approximately 2 million children die yearly of vaccine-preventable diseases. Reducing child mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been one of the leading focuses of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). As a way to achieve country-specific MDG 4 targets, SSA countries have created national immunization programs as efficient and cost effective ways to reduce child mortality and the number of children with life-threatening infectious diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends children be fully immunized by age 1 to prevent most of the common childhood diseases. In 2012, an estimated 2,000,000–3,000,000 deaths were averted by vaccinations, yet approximately 19,000,000 children were not fully immunized, 16,000,000 of whom resided in eight SSA countries [2]

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Discussion

Conclusion