Prevalence and correlates of never vaccinated Nigerian children, aged 1–5 years

• Published in: Vaccine 2018-11, Vol.36 (46), p.6953-6960
• Main Authors: Chido-Amajuoyi, Onyema Greg, Wonodi, Chizoba, Mantey, Dale, Perez, Adriana, Mcalister, Alfred
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Antigens; Child health; Children; Children & youth; Demographics; Employment; Geopolitics; Health surveys; Higher education; Households; Immunization; Islam; Mothers; Nigeria; Non-vaccination; Population studies; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Religion; Rural areas; Secondary analysis; Secondary education; Sociodemographic; Sociodemographics; Vaccine; Vaccine preventable diseases; Vaccines; Womens health
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.10.006

•About 21% of Nigerian children, aged 1–5 years, never receive any of the recommended childhood vaccines.•Over 80% of never-vaccinated children are situated in the Northern Nigeria.•Sociodemographic factors are significantly associated with child never-vaccination in Nigeria.•Determinants of child never-vaccination vary significantly by Northern and Southern regions of Nigeria. A unique population of Nigerian children, aged 1–5 years, never receive any of the recommended childhood vaccines. However, the characteristics of this population has not been previously described. Given Nigeria’s historically poor childhood immunization coverage and high child mortality rates, it was imperative we investigate the prevalence and correlates of never-vacccination among Nigerian children. We conducted secondary analysis of the 2013 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey data of Nigerian children, aged 12–59 months (n = 20,586). Weighted multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and never-vaccination of Nigerian children. Further regression analysis was conducted after stratifying by Northern and Southern regions. About twenty one percent of study sample, had never been vaccinated. Over eighty percent of the never-vaccinated children in our study resided in the Northern geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Child never-vaccination was found to be significantly associated with key socio-demographic characteristics. Children born into poor households, with mothers who are unemployed and uneducation, were more likely to be never-vaccinated. Unique predictors of child never-vaccination specific to Northern Nigeria were identified. Islam (aOR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.11–2.17) and lack of access to Television or Radio (aOR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.22–1.81) promoted never-vaccination, while increasing maternal age and rural residence (aOR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.42–0.95) were associated with lower odds of never-vaccination. Socio-demographic factors are predictors of child never-vaccination in Nigeria. Further investigations are needed to better understand the underlying contexts that conribute to child never-vaccination in populations identified in this study. More so, it is important to examine the mechanism through which predictors that are region-speific, culminate in child never-vaccination.