Copyright
©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Cluster sampling methodology to evaluate immunization coverage
Aishwarya Sharma, RB Jain, Jitesh Satija, Aditi Sharma, Avani Sharma, Sudhir Shekhawat
Aishwarya Sharma, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences & Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201306, UP, India
RB Jain, Department of Community Medicine, World College of Medical Sciences & Research, Jhajjar 124103, Haryana, India
Jitesh Satija, Department of Community Medicine, ESIC Medical College & Hospital, Faridabad 121012, Haryana, India
Aditi Sharma, Department of Community Medicine, Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, New Delhi 110062, India
Avani Sharma, Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B.D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak 124001, Haryana, India
Sudhir Shekhawat, Independent Biostatistician, Ghaziabad 201014, UP, India
Author contributions: Sharma A contributed to the conceptualization of this study; Sharma A and Jain R were involved in the methodology and supervision of this manuscript; Sharma A and Shekhawat S participated in the formal analysis and investigation of this article; Sharma A and Sharma A contributed to the writing - original draft preparation; Satija J, Sharma A, and Sharma A participated in the writing - reviewing and editing.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee Pt. B.D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences/University of Health Sciences Rohtak with approval number BREC/Th/20/Comm. Med./02.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Aishwarya Sharma, MD, Senior Resident, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences & Research, Sharda University, Knowledge Park 3, Greater Noida 201306, UP, India. aishwarya_712@yahoo.in
Received: January 23, 2024
Revised: May 1, 2024
Accepted: May 22, 2024
Published online: September 20, 2024
Processing time: 154 Days and 4.9 Hours
BACKGROUND
Immunization is a key component of primary health care and an indisputable human right. Vaccines are critical to the prevention and control of infectious disease outbreaks. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated disruptions over the past two years have strained the health systems, with many children missing out on essential childhood vaccines.
AIM
To evaluate the immunization coverage among 12-23-month-old children in the rural areas of Community Health Centre (CHC) Dighal and to determine the factors influencing the existing immunization coverage.
METHODS
A coverage evaluation survey was conducted according to the 30-cluster sampling technique, which is the standard methodology for such surveys devised by World Health Organization. A total of 300 children aged 12-23 months were included, whose immunization details were noted from their immunization cards.
RESULTS
Full immunization rate was noted in 86.7% of the children, with partial and non-immunized children accounting for 9% and 4.3% respectively. The full immunization dropout rate was 4.2%. The common reasons for partial or non-immunization were family problem including illness of mother, vaccine not being available and child being ill. Place of birth (P = 0.014) and availability of immunization card (P < 0.001) were significant predictors of the immunization status. Since the study was conducted in 2020/2021, health services were disrupted due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
CONCLUSION
Due to the coverage being higher than the national average, it was concluded that the immunization coverage was optimal and not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Core Tip: Cluster sampling technique is a unique method of probability sampling. It has immense scope in being utilized for healthcare delivery service coverage. Each cluster is crucial in representing a geographically diverse population under study. This sustains uniform representation along with statistical correctness. This technique has been employed to evaluate the immunization coverage among children in a rural setting in India, during the pandemic.
