This article investigates the relationship between access to a health facility and the continuum of child vaccination behaviours in Nigeria, including vaccine uptake, dropout, and timing of vaccine take-up. Using logistic and OLS models, the health facility census data were combined with the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey to quantify the distance between respondents’ locations and the nearest health facility and to analyse its influence on a series of immunisation habits. 78.2 percent of 21,369 children aged 12 to 59 months had ever been immunised. Distance to the nearest clinic is seldom related with dropout rates in the vaccine series, but it does affect vaccination scheduling, particularly in the later phases of the immunisation series and Polio vaccination, which necessitate supply-side mobilisation. Distance to the nearest health institution is related with decreased vaccine take-up and delayed immunisation schedule, but not with vaccine dropout. 78.2 percent of 21,369 children aged 12 to 59 months had ever been immunised.
Distance to the nearest clinic is seldom related with dropout rates in the vaccine series, but it does affect vaccination scheduling, particularly in the later phases of the immunisation series and Polio vaccination, which necessitate supply-side mobilisation. Distance to the nearest health institution is related with decreased vaccine take-up and delayed immunisation schedule, but not with vaccine dropout. More research should be done on the dynamics of vaccination decisions, including the many drivers of vaccine take-up and dropout.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1678360
