Associated Factors to Immunization Timeliness and Completion in Preterm and Low Birth Weight Infants at Essos Hospital Center Yaounde

Introduction: Vaccination is very often delayed in premature and low birth weight infants. However, timely vaccination is even more important in this population because of their increased susceptibility to infection. Objective: To assess immunization practice and factors associated with vaccine promptness and completeness in former preterm and low-birth-weight infants. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analytical cross-sectional study (January 2017 to February 2019). Main Measurement: Promptness and completeness at each contact, Statistical analysis was performed using R software version 3.6.2, logistic regression was used to estimate the Odds Ratio (OR) and their 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Results: We recruited 310 children aged 12 to 36 months born before 37 weeks with low birth weight, 163 (52.6%) of whom were female. Two hundred and fifty-three had received the vaccines at the indicated age, with promptness rate of 81.6%, and 97.7% had completed routine immunization at 9 months. The mean age at vaccination initiation was 6 days ± 11 and the mean weight at vaccination initiation was 2233 g ± 494. High prematurity and very low birth weight were associated with a high rate of vaccine delay: 61.5% [OR: 15.56;