TITLE:
Socioeconomic factors effecting polio vaccination in Pakistan
AUTHORS:
Sheeba Arooj, Sitwat Ali, Nimra Baber, Atif Abbasi, Midhat Ali
KEYWORDS:
Pakistan Demographic Health Survey; Polio Vaccination; Socioeconomic Factors; Children Less than 5 Years; Odd Ratio
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.5,
May
27,
2013
ABSTRACT: Background: Child vaccinations are
one of most cost effective health programs that have weakened a number of
child morbidity and mortality rate all over the world. Pakistan is considered
one of the major country of the world, where people especially children are
bound by many harmful infectious diseases like polio, hepatitis, viral
infections etc. The effectiveness of routine childhood immunization programs
relies on multiple factors. Socio-economic determinants have the potential to
affect immunization programs. The purpose of the present study was to determine
the association between socio-economic factors and polio vaccination coverage
among children inPakistan.
Methods: The study used data from the Pakistandemographic health survey (PDHS 2006-07 N 10023). The study focused on
respondents who had births in last five years. Descriptive and inferential
statistics were used to determine the association between variables. Spss
version 20 was used for data analysis. A number of socioeconomic variables were
used in chi square & binary logistic regression model to check out their
association with polio vaccination coverage. Results:
Study shows that most dominant factors
associated with polio vaccination coverage were region that is NWFP OR 3.48 (odd
ratio) with 95% confidence interval (C-I 2.06
& 3.13) & Punjab OR 2.54 (C-I
2.062 & 3.131), residence urban OR 1.626 (C-I
1.451 & 1.822), sex of child male
OR 1.125 (C-I 1.008 & 1.256), age of
mother 25 - 34 years OR 1.11 (C-I
0.978 & 1.276), wealth index rich OR 2.98 (C-I 2.55 & 3.48), age of child 4 - 5 years OR 1.17 (C-I 0.899 & 1.538), mother’s education higher OR 2.06 (C-I 1.776 & 2.411), father’s education
higher OR 1.399 (C-I 1.221 & 1.203) ,father’s occupation professional OR 1.27 (C-I 0.929 & 1.737). Conclusion: In developing countries like Pakistan most of the children
remain unvaccinated because of many socio-economic constraints. Poor
marginalized people have a low awareness regarding the importance of polio vaccine.
Along with social hierarchies, educational attainment of parents is a strong
indicator of defining awareness level regarding vaccination.