Vaccination Status and Factors for Non- Vaccination in Children at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Immunization is a very effective strategy to prevent against common infectious disease. The objectives of the study were to determine the immunization status and reasons for non-vaccination of children coming to Civil Hospital Sukkur. This cross-sectional study was conducted pediatric OPD at Civil Hospital Sukkur from January 1, 2013, to June 30, 2013. Parents of children under five years of age brought their child to Outpatient Department of Civil Hospital Sukkur for any illness were asked to participate in the study. Parents who gave informed consent were included in the study. Data were collected using a small questionnaire by the researcher himself. A total of 500 parents gave consent to participate in the study. The average age of children was 20.4±16.3 months, 257 (51.4%) were males and 243 (48.6%) were females. Four hundred and four (80.4%) children were fully vaccinated and 98 (19.6%) were not vaccinated. Parents don’t know about immunization, busy parents, illness of a child, fear of immunization and parents who are not considering immunization as important are independent factors of non-vaccination. Keywords: Vaccination; Immunization; Factors; Childre