Study of Immunization status of Children Less than 5 Years of Age in a tertiary Health Care Institution of Amritsar-A Hospital based study

Immunization is an important public health intervention and a cost effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with the vaccine preventable diseases.

To estimate the immunization status as per the National Immunization Schedule and

To identify the socio-demographic profile influencing the immunization status of children under five years of age.

The study was carried out in the immunization unit of Urban Health Training Center, Department of Community Medicine, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Vallah, Amritsar. It was a cross sectional descriptive study. In the present study, 994 children aged 0–5 years were included. The study involved interviewing the mother/caregiver having a child in the age group of 0–5 years, using a Performa to obtain characteristics of mothers and immunization history of children. It was carried out from November 2016 to January 2017. Statistical analysis was done and valid conclusions were drawn.

Majority of mothers (95.77%) were literate. Majority of the children (93.96%) were completely immunized. Sex of a child had no significant association with immunization coverage

Present study showed that most of the children under study were completely immunized as per the National Immunization Schedule. The study had shown that there was a direct positive correlation of the higher socio-economic and literacy status of mothers/caregivers with the immunization coverage of children. Immunization coverage is found more in children delivered in hospitals/Govt. Institutes as compared to children delivered in homes.