Reasons for Drop out of Immunization in Children Aged Between 0-12 Months in Diyarbakir

BACKGROUND: In this study, vaccination dropout reasons in children aged between 0-12 months was investigated. METHODS: A survey was carried out at eight primary health centers in the city center of Diyarbakir and also at three primary health centers, each in separate village. In collecting data, the records of the form 012 records (the card for the registration of vaccination) that were available at eight primary health centers. The children who were droped out vaccination were accepted as the cases of the survey. Through those records, 350 children aged between 1,5 and 5 years, who remained droped out, were reached by-house-to-house visits. As the control group, for each droped out child one fully immunized child selected by the same method. The children were selected from the neighborhood of the same medical center and also of the same age group. Information about the mothers were collected by face-to-face- interviews. The features of underimmunized and fully immunized children were compared through the charts of frequency. Chi-square analysis was applied for the comparisons of the two group. For the factors that were considered to have effect on droping out, the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. RESULTS: In the survey, it was seen that 62,3% of the mothers and 13,4% of the fathers of the underimmunized children were illiterate. It was also found that being the eighth child increased the risk of the underimmunization 6,07 (%95 CI:2,85-13,09) folds in comparison to the first child. In fully immunized children, vaccination card application was better than droped out children. Having vaccination at home increases the risk of underimmunization . CONCLUSION: We concluded that mother s education level, order of child, consoling after vaccination, giving vaccine card, home visits for vaccination were the factors related with vaccination dropout. [TAF Prev Med Bull. 2008; 7(4): 277-284]