Page 12 - IJPS-8-2

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Accuracy of mother’s reporting on child

immunization in Yemen between 2012 and 2013

1
Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza *, Luciana Correia Alves , and
2
Raphael Mendonça Guimarães
3
1 Population Studies Center “Elza Berquó” (NEPO), University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo,
Brazil
2 College of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) and Population Studies Center “Elza Berquó”
(NEPO), University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
3 Department of Social Sciences, Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp), Oswaldo
Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

There is a complex interaction between infectious diseases and child nutritional
status as infections usually entail some nutritional setback and vice versa. Therefore,
vaccination against childhood infectious diseases is an important preventive
measure against malnutrition itself, playing a key role in reducing child mortality.
However, whereas referring to vaccination coverage it is crucial to have it clear how
this coverage is measured, once it may vary considerably depending on the source
of information. While child vaccination status is obtained from medical records in
developed countries, in developing countries, they are mostly taken from vaccination
cards and/or mothers’ reports. Nevertheless, some researchers have come to diverse
*Corresponding author: conclusions in terms of the accuracy of parents’ reports. Based on a rich longitudinal
Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza
(laeticiarsouza@gmail.com) household survey available for Yemen collected in 2012 – 2013, we find that although
mothers’ reports should not be discarded when estimating vaccination coverage
Citation: De Souza LR, Alves LC, (otherwise, coverage would be extremely overestimated), this information should be
Guimarães RM. (2022). Accuracy
of mother’s reporting on child used with caution.
immunization in Yemen between
2012 and 2013. International
Journal of Population Studies, Keywords: Reporting accuracy; Vaccination coverage; Child immunization; Children;
8(2):6-14. Maternal recall; Yemen; Yemen National Social Protection Monitoring Survey
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.1274
Received: December 12, 2021
Accepted: May 17, 2022
1. Introduction
Published Online: May 31, 2022
There is a complex interaction between infectious diseases and child nutritional status
Copyright: © 2022 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article in the sense that infections usually entail some nutritional setback and vice versa.
distributed under the terms of the Therefore, vaccination against the main childhood infectious diseases may be an
Creative Commons Attribution important preventive measure against malnutrition itself (CSO, PAPCHILD, and MI,
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1994). Reducing child mortality is defined by the United Nations (UN) as the fourth
provided the original work is millennium development goal, and vaccination plays a key determinant to achieve this
properly cited. goal. Since 1974, the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and the substantially
Publisher’s Note: AccScience increased vaccination coverage in many countries have saved the lives of millions of
Publishing remains neutral with children. However, while referring to vaccination coverage, it is crucial to have it clear
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional how this coverage is measured, as it may vary considerably depending on the way
affiliations. vaccination status is determined (Langsten and Hill, 1998).

Volume 8 Issue 2 (2022) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.1274