Abstract

Afolabi Oluwafemi and Owumi Oritsedere

As many countries have achieved 85% full childhood immunization coverage with a sharp drop in the incidence of six major diseases, the situation in many other countries especially in Nigeria still call for concern and thereby suggesting that this indicator may not have been responding to prior policy and technical interventions. Globally, mothers play a major role in determining the health of their children. Thus, the influence of mothers’ health seeking behaviour and their socio-economic differentials on childhood immunization status was examined. Data on 4,519 women aged 15 to 49 years with at least a child within the last five years were extracted from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) kids-recode data set for this study and complemented with In-Depth Interviews (IDIs). The study found that 36.2% of the mothers did not receive any antenatal care, 6.9% received antenatal care at home, 30.0% of them delivered at home as 63.2% did not receive any postnatal care. Overall, only 36.5% of children aged 12 to 23 months were fully immunized, 51.0% received partial vaccination, while 12.5% did not receive any vaccine. The study revealed that mothers’ place of antenatal care, place of delivery, level of education, type of occupation, place of residence and wealth quintile significantly influence childhood vaccination status (p<0.05).