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Childhood immunization rates in rural Intibucá, Honduras: an analysis of a local database tool and community health center records for assessing and improving vaccine coverage
- Source :
- BMC Public Health, Vol 12, Iss 1, p 1056 (2012), BMC Public Health
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- BMC, 2012.
-
Abstract
- Background Vaccines are highly effective at preventing infectious diseases in children, and prevention is especially important in resource-limited countries where treatment is difficult to access. In Honduras, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports very high immunization rates in children. To determine whether or not these estimates accurately depict the immunization coverage in non-urban regions of the country, we compared the WHO data to immunization rates obtained from a local database tool and community health center records in rural Intibucá, Honduras. Methods We used data from two sources to comprehensively evaluate immunization rates in the area: 1) census data from a local database and 2) immunization data collected at health centers. We compared these rates using logistic regression, and we compared them to publicly available WHO-reported estimates using confidence interval inclusion. Results We found that mean immunization rates for each vaccine were high (range 84.4 to 98.8 percent), but rates recorded at the health centers were significantly higher than those reported from the census data (p≤0.001). Combining the results from both databases, the mean rates of four out of five vaccines were less than WHO-reported rates (p p=0.03). The rates by individual vaccine were similar across townships (p >0.05), except for diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccine (p=0.02) and oral polio vaccine (p Conclusions Immunization rates in Honduras were high across data sources, though most of the rates recorded in rural Honduras were less than WHO-reported rates. Despite geographical difficulties and barriers to access, the local database and Honduran community health workers have developed a thorough system for ensuring that children receive their immunizations on time. The successful integration of community health workers and a database within the Honduran decentralized health system may serve as a model for other immunization programs in resource-limited countries where health care is less accessible.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Databases, Factual
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Population
Childhood immunization
Developing country
computer.software_genre
Database
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Community health center
Environmental health
Health care
medicine
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Child
education
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
Vaccines
Public health
Community health workers
030306 microbiology
business.industry
lcsh:Public aspects of medicine
Vaccination
1. No poverty
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
lcsh:RA1-1270
Community Health Centers
3. Good health
Honduras
Pertussis vaccine
Female
Immunization
Rural area
business
computer
Research Article
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14712458
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMC Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f380b88fc2189b90116a5f2c8171ce8c