Determinants of Uptake of Routine Immunization Among Under-Five Children in a Selected Community in Gombe Metropolis, North- Eastern Nigeria

Background: Immunization services are cost-effective interventions that over the years have reduced under-five morbidity and mortality rate worldwide. Despite the availability of this health care service, immunization coverage is still unacceptably low in Nigeria. Objectives: This study aims to determine the proportion of respondents who are fully immunized and assess the factors associated with uptake of immunization in Gombe State, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 152 mother-child pairs. The respondents were selected from Tumfure community using a multistage sampling technique. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information and data collected was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23. Results: Fifty- five percent of the respondents were between 25-34 years while 48.7% of the children were between 12-24months. Antenatal clinic (ANC) attendance was 96.7% and 92.8% of them had at least four visits for the index pregnancy. Majority (77%) of the children were fully immunized, 14% were partially immunized while 9% received zero immunization for all antigens. The respondents’ educational status and ANC attendance for the index child were associated with having complete immunization (p- values 0.014 and 0.04 respectively). Furthermore, respondents who had more than 4 ANC visits for the index child were 4 times more likely to have fully immunized their children. The respondent’s reasons for partial or non-immunization included distance to the health care facility and the father’s refusal to permit uptake of immunization. Conclusion: The proportion of respondents in this study who were fully immunized is high and women who had adequate ANC were four times more likely to have fully immunized children compared to those who didn’t have adequate ANC. Therefore, interventions should be targeted at women to access adequate ANC services and male involvement should be encouraged during the provision of maternal and child health services.