Differential effect of conflicts on vaccination: Boko Haram insurgency vs. other conflicts in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The Boko Haram insurgency is one of the most devastating violent crises that Nigeria has encountered in recent years. This paper compares the relative effect of the Boko Haram insurgency, as compared to other conflict events, on vaccination uptake among Nigerian children. To evaluate the effect of conflict events on vaccination, the children’s birth months and the months of armed conflict were matched. The data on vaccination uptake was from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2018, while the information on conflict events was from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP GED). The sub-group analysis was conducted, Boko-Haram affected sample vs. total sample, to evaluate the differential effect of armed conflict events on vaccination. The Boko Haram insurgency had a significant and negative effect on vaccination uptake in the conflict-affected states; Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. On the other hand, other forms of conflicts that took place in Nigeria had significantly weaker effects on vaccination uptake. The negative effect of Boko Haram-related conflict events was particularly strong on Penta3/DPT3 uptake, while its effect on BCG was weak.

KEYWORDS:

• Vaccination
• conflicts
• Boko Haram
• Nigeria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryoko Sato

Ryoko Sato, PhD, is a Research Associate at the Global Health and Population Department and at the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a development economist, interested in health behavioral changes and health outcome improvements in cost-effective ways in low- and middle-income countries. Her research focuses on three main areas: [1] Evaluation of interventions to induce health behavioral changes through rigorous causal studies such as randomized controlled trials; [2] Investigation of determinants of health outcomes and disparities, mainly using secondary data; [3] Cost analysis and Cost-effectiveness analysis of health interventions and policies. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.