Status Of Routine Immunisation In Chandigarh , India

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate status of routine immunisation in Chandigarh Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Under five children residing in rural, urban and slum of Chandigarh. Subjects: 400 mothers and their 518 under-five children Method: This study was conducted on PPI day in Dec-Jan 2003-2004. A total of 20 booths were selected randomly by random sampling in the proportion of population distribution so that the study covers children in proportion of the area i.e. 10 booths in urban, 8 booths in slums and resettlement colonies and 2 booths in rural areas. 20 mothers were enrolled from each of the selected booths. Results: Out of these 448 (86.4%) children were fully immunized, 60(11.5%) were incompletely immunized and 10(1.9%) were completely unimmunised. Immunization rate was 90% for male children whereas it was 80% for female children. This difference in immunization status of male and females children was found to be statistically significant (p <.01).It was observed that for 218 (56.0%) mothers, television was the major source of information, closely followed by ANM/Health workers i.e. 206 (53.0%). 7.0% of mothers felt that immunization was non-beneficial/non-responsive towards importance of vaccination. Conclusion: Immunization status of Chandigarh has improved but there is a room for improvement. Training and reorientation of health workers, supervision of the ongoing UIP, along with timely feedback should be considered as the key component to further improve and sustain routine immunization coverage in order to reach the unreached.