Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on vaccination coverage among children aged 15 to 23 months at Dessie town, Northeast Ethiopia, 2020

ABSTRACT

Background: Disturbances are occurring in healthcare, trade, and travel, with countries closing off their borders due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) in the world. The pandemic has its impact on the delivery of important health services, including vaccinations. This study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on vaccination coverage among children aged 15–23 months.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 22 to August 7, 2020, in Dessie town, Ethiopia. 633 children with their mother/caregiver were interviewed. Interviewer administered pre-tested structured questioner was used. Data was entered into EPI data and analyzed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Both binary and multivariate logistic regression analyses were tested. In multivariate analysis, a significant association was declared at a p-value of < 0.05.

Result: Response rate was 96.4%. Based on the vaccination card plus recall, 350 (57.4%) of children finished all recommended vaccines. Age-eligible vaccination coverage during the COVID-19 outbreak was 12.5% lower than before the outbreak. Being a father main caregiver, mother/caregiver who can write and read, and mother/caregiver who educated from grade 1 to 8 mother/caregiver who is divorced, mother/caregiver who spend more than 30 minutes to reach health institution, and mother/caregiver who aware about the benefit of vaccination, about the campaign, and knowledge of COVID-19 each shows statistically significant association with full vaccination status of children.

Conclusion: Full vaccination coverage among children aged 15–23 months remains low in Dessie town, which further decreases after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, measures should be taken to increase consciousness about vaccination and the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Vaccination coverage
• children
• COVID-19
• Ethiopia
• 2020

Abbreviations

ANC	=	Antenatal care
BCG	=	Bacille Calmette Guerin
CI	=	Confidence interval
COVID-19	=	Coronavirus Disease 19
DC	=	Data collector
DOR.	=	Dropout rate
EPI	=	Expanded Program on Immunization
FMOH	=	Federal Minister of Health
HPV	=	Human Papilloma Virus
I	=	Investigators
IRC	=	Institutional Review Committee
IV	=	Intravenous
OPV	=	Oral Polio Vaccine
PAHO	=	Pan African Health Organization
PHEIC	=	Public Health Emergency of International Concern
SARS	=	Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SPSS	=	Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
VPDs	=	Vaccine-preventable diseases
WHO	=	World Health Organization
WU	=	Wollo University

Acknowledgments

We are thankful for Dessie town community members, data collectors, and supervisors. We are grateful to Wollo University for supporting us to research on the current pandemic disease.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical clearance was obtained from Wollo University College of medicine and health science research ethical review committee. The ethical clearance letter reference number is WU/324/T-01/2020. Communications with administrators of the selected kebeles in the town were held through a formal letter (reference number: WU/325/T-01/2020). The data collector elaborates on the importance of the study for the participants. Written consent was signed by each participant. for their voluntariness to participate in the study before data collection. Confidentiality of the collected data was maintained.

Availability of data and materials

All datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are presented in the paper.

Competing interest

We affirm that we have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

DGM participated in the development proposal with methods and objectives, prepared tools, collected data, analyzed, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ZAA and SGA supervised the development of the study design, and carried out the literature review, and helped in manuscript writing. All authors developed and supervised the research, edit and ready the manuscript for publication. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

No specific fund was used for this study. Wollo University supported the work by providing a special fund ordered for research that is given to authors. This fund has no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.