Immunization status and demographic characteristics of New Zealand infants in the first 6 months of life

Abstract

In the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society's 1990-91 cohort study, of 3902 children, 985 (25.2%) had fallen behind the immunization schedule by 6 months of age. These children were more likely to be from lower socio-economic groups or to have mothers who were older, with high or low education, or of higher parity. The infants were also more likely to be from non-European families, or to have unemployed fathers. Eight hundred and ten (82.2%) of the incompletely immunized children at that age could be brought up-to-date with their immunizations by a single visit to the doctor. The most common reason for delaying immunization was that the baby was sick. This was a false contraindication in 69.2, 79.0 and 78.4% of these children at the 6 week, 3 month and 5 month immunization, respectively.

Comparative assessment of immunization coverage of migrant children between national immunization program vaccines and non-national immunization program vaccines in East China

“…The coverage for NIP vaccines ranged between 87.9% and 100.0%, while the coverage for non-NIP vaccines ranged between 0% between 74.8%. Our observation agreed with previous reports from U.S. 13 The maternal determinants identified in our study for immunization coverage of non-NIP vaccines, such as lower education level, mother with a job, mother' s poor awareness of vaccination, were in agreement with the findings of previous studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] . There were some reasons for that: first, education level may influence mother's knowledge of and attitude and behavior to take advantage of vaccination service for her child; second, mothers with jobs may not have enough time to spare for the primary healthcare including immunization, and may be less aware of the information on immunization.…”

Predictors of incomplete immunisation in Victorian children

“…This study confirmed findings from a number of survey-based studies: children from larger families, 4,30,31 those with single parents, 3,32 younger mothers 5 or mothers who were bor n overseas 5 were less likely to be fully immunised. Other f actors related to incomplete immunisation that had not previously been reported include home birth, lack of pri vate health insurance and relatively shor t interval between pregnancies (12-23 months).…”

Vaccination coverage among children aged 13 to 59 months in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2002

“…Other risk factors in our study, such as not being the firstborn child and lower educational level of the caregiver, were also found to be associated with incomplete immunization in a study by Bobo et al (19). These same factors were associated with undervaccination among children by the age of 6 months in New Zealand (20). Although unemployment of the caregiver was found to be a risk factor associated with undervaccination in a similar study conducted in Italy (21), it was not associated with undervaccination in our study or in a study in Flanders, Belgium (22).…”