Page 19 - IJPS-8-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Accuracy of mother’s reporting on child immunization in Yemen

educating men and women on the safety and importance The survey was developed under the technical guidance
of immunizations based on local needs. Despite all these of a multisectoral committee including representatives
efforts in guaranteeing population access to immunization of the following Yemeni institutions: Central Statistical
cards at the facility level, families seem to not understand Organization, the Social Welfare Fund, the Ministry of
the importance of keeping vaccination cards at hand. This Social Affairs and Labor, the Ministry of Public Health
becomes clearer when using data on vaccination from and Population, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of
Yemen’s household surveys, as much of the information Finance, and Sana’a University.
relies on parents’ reports instead of vaccination cards.
Conflict of Interest
5. Conclusion No conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.
Based on the sample of children used in our analysis, we
found that considering mothers’ reporting information Authors’ Contributions
in estimating vaccination coverage in Yemen tends to Conceived and designed: Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza.
underestimate this indicator. Although this finding may Review of literature: Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza and
cause relief, as the real situation of child vaccination in Luciana Correia Alves. Contributed to tools/materials/data
Yemen may actually be somewhat better than that based collection: Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza, Luciana Correia
on the estimated coverage, this also means a waste of the Alves and Raphael Mendonça Guimarães. Analyzed the
already scarce resources of the country. An important fact data: Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza, Luciana Correia Alves
to be mentioned is the considerable percentage of children and Raphael Mendonça Guimarães. Drafted and wrote
who are born at home without the presence of skilled health the manuscript: Laetícia Rodrigues De Souza and Luciana
personnel during childbirth in Yemen. Approximately 73% Correia Alves.
of women did not deliver births at a health facility in 2013.
Moreover, only 14% of women delivering at home were Ethical Approval
attended by skilled health personnel during childbirth The human data used in our research are a publicly available
(IPC-IG and UNICEF, 2014). This fact is especially household survey dataset that can be downloaded from the
important when taking into account BCG vaccine (and webpage http://nspms-yemen.ipc-undp.org/.
first dose of polio), which is given at birth.
It is important to enhance families’ and health workers’ Availability of Supporting Data
awareness of the importance of keeping children’s The NSPMS dataset is in open access on the webpage
vaccination schedules up-to-date. Maybe the fact that dedicated to the UNICEF and IPC-IG joint project (http://
mothers make more mistakes answering that their child nspms-yemen.ipc-undp.org/).
was not vaccinated when they were actually vaccinated References
indicates that mothers find vaccination somehow
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child was not immunized so that they can be (re)vaccinated medical records. Public Health Reports, 113:521-526.
anyway. However, as highlighted earlier, this means that Brown DW. (2012). Child immunization cards: Essential yet
the resources used for child immunization in Yemen could underutilized in national immunization programmes. The
be used more efficiently. Finally, while it is essential to Open Vaccine Journal, 5:1-7.
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Funding Maternal and Child Health Survey 1991/1992. Calverton,
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Volume 8 Issue 2 (2022) 13 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.1274