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The Association between Childhood Immunization and Gender Inequality: A Multi-Country Ecological Analysis of Zero-Dose DTP Prevalence and DTP3 Immunization Coverage.

ABSTRACT: This study explores the association between childhood immunization and gender inequality at the national level. Data for the study include annual country-level estimates of immunization among children aged 12-23 months, indicators of gender inequality, and associated factors for up to 165 countries from 2010-2019. The study examined the association between gender inequality, as measured by the gender development index and the gender inequality index, and two key outcomes: prevalence of children who received no doses of the DTP vaccine (zero-dose children) and children who received the third dose of the DTP vaccine (DTP3 coverage). Unadjusted and adjusted fractional logit regression models were used to identify the association between immunization and gender inequality. Gender inequality, as measured by the Gender Development Index, was positively and significantly associated with the proportion of zero-dose children (high inequality AOR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.13-2.30). Consistently, full DTP3 immunization was negatively and significantly associated with gender inequality (high inequality AOR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.46-0.86). These associations were robust to the use of an alternative gender inequality measure (the Gender Inequality Index) and were consistent across a range of model specifications controlling for demographic, economic, education, and health-related factors. Gender inequality at the national level is predictive of childhood immunization coverage, highlighting that addressing gender barriers is imperative to achieve universal coverage in immunization and to ensure that no child is left behind in routine vaccination.

SUBMITTER: Vidal Fuertes C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9317382 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Immunization through vaccines among children has contributed to improved childhood survival and health outcomes globally. However, vaccine coverage among children is unevenly distributed across settings and populations. The measurement of inequalities is essential for understanding gaps in vaccine coverage affecting certain sub-populations and monitoring progress towards achieving equity. Our study aimed to characterize the methods of reporting inequalities in childhood vaccine coverage, inclusive of the settings, data source types, analytical methods, and reporting modalities used to quantify and communicate inequality. We conducted a scoping review of publications in academic journals which included analyses of inequalities in vaccination among children. Literature searches were conducted in PubMed and Web of Science and included relevant articles published between 8 December 2013 and 7 December 2023. Overall, 242 publications were identified, including 204 assessing inequalities in a single country and 38 assessing inequalities across more than one country. We observed that analyses on inequalities in childhood vaccine coverage rely heavily on Demographic Health Survey (DHS) or Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) data (39.3%), and papers leveraging these data had increased in the last decade. Additionally, about half of the single-country studies were conducted in low- and middle-income countries. We found that few studies analyzed and reported inequalities using summary measures of health inequality and largely used the odds ratio resulting from logistic regression models for analyses. The most analyzed dimensions of inequality were economic status and maternal education, and the most common vaccine outcome indicator was full vaccination with the recommended vaccine schedule. However, the definition and construction of both dimensions of inequality and vaccine coverage measures varied across studies, and a variety of approaches were used to study inequalities in vaccine coverage across contexts. Overall, harmonizing methods for selecting and categorizing dimensions of inequalities as well as methods for analyzing and reporting inequalities can improve our ability to assess the magnitude and patterns of inequality in vaccine coverage and compare those inequalities across settings and time.

Project description:Background and objectivesDespite India's substantial economic growth in the past two decades, girls in India are discriminated against in access to preventive healthcare including immunizations. Surprisingly, no study has assessed the contribution of gender based within-household discrimination to the overall inequality in immunization status of Indian children. This study therefore has two objectives: to estimate the gender based within-household inequality (GWHI) in immunization status of Indian children and to examine the inter-regional and inter-temporal variations in the GWHI.Data and methodsThe present study used households with a pair of male-female siblings (aged 1-5 years) from two rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 1992-93 and 2005-06). The overall inequality in the immunization status (after controlling for age and birth order) of children was decomposed into within-households and between-households components using Mean log deviation to obtain the GWHI component. The analysis was conducted at the all-India level as well as for six specified geographical regions and at two time points (1992-93 and 2005-06). Household fixed-effects models for immunization status of children were also estimated.Results and conclusionsFindings from household fixed effects analysis indicated that the immunization scores of girls were significantly lower than that of boys. The inequality decompositions revealed that, at the all-India level, the absolute level of GWHI in immunization status decreased from 0.035 in 1992-93 to 0.023 in 2005-06. However, as a percentage of total inequality, it increased marginally (15.5% to 16.5%). In absolute terms, GWHI decreased in all the regions except in the North-East. But, as a percentage of total inequality it increased in the North-Eastern, Western and Southern regions. The main conclusions are the following: GWHI contributes substantially to the overall inequality in immunization status of Indian children; and though the overall inequality in immunization status declined in all the regions, the changes in GWHI were mixed.

Project description:Immunization is the world's most successful and cost-effective public health intervention as it prevents over 2 million deaths annually. However, over 2 million deaths still occur yearly from Vaccine preventable diseases, the majority of which occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is a major contributor of global childhood deaths from VPDs. Till date, Nigeria still has wild polio virus in circulation. The objective of this study was to identify the individual and socioeconomic factors associated with immunization coverage in Nigeria through a secondary dataset analysis of Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 2013.A quantitative analysis of the 2013 NDHS dataset was performed. Ethical approvals were obtained from Walden University IRB and the National Health Research Ethics Committee of Nigeria. The dataset was downloaded, validated for completeness and analyzed using univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistics.Of 27,571 children aged 0 to 59 months, 22.1% had full vaccination, and 29% never received any vaccination. Immunization coverage was significantly associated with childbirth order, delivery place, child number, and presence or absence of a child health card. Maternal age, geographical location, education, religion, literacy, wealth index, marital status, and occupation were significantly associated with immunization coverage. Paternal education, occupation, and age were also significantly associated with coverage. Respondent's age, educational attainment and wealth index remained significantly related to immunization coverage at 95% confidence interval in multivariate analysis.The study highlights child, parental and socioeconomic barriers to successful immunization programs in Nigeria. These findings need urgent attention, given the re-emergence of wild poliovirus in Nigeria. An effective, efficient, sustainable, accessible, and acceptable immunization program for children should be designed, developed and undertaken in Nigeria with adequate strategies put in place to implement them.

Project description:BackgroundA variety of studies have considered the affects of India's son preference on gender differences in child mortality, sex ratio at birth, and access to health services. Less research has focused on the affects of son preference on gender inequities in immunization coverage and how this may have varied with time, and across regions and with sibling compositions. We present a systematic examination of trends in immunization coverage in India, with a focus on inequities in coverage by gender, birth order, year of birth, and state.MethodsWe analyzed data from three consecutive rounds of the Indian National Family Health Survey undertaken between 1992 and 2006. All children below five years of age with complete immunization histories were included in the analysis. Age-appropriate immunization coverage was determined for the following antigens: bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), oral polio (OPV), diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus (DPT), and measles.ResultsImmunization coverage in India has increased since the early 1990s, but complete, age-appropriate coverage is still under 50% nationally. Girls were found to have significantly lower immunization coverage (p<0.001) than boys for BCG, DPT, and measles across all three surveys. By contrast, improved coverage of OPV suggests a narrowing of the gender differences in recent years. Girls with a surviving older sister were less likely to be immunized compared to boys, and a large proportion of all children were found to be immunized considerably later than recommended.ConclusionsGender inequities in immunization coverage are prevalent in India. The low immunization coverage, the late immunization trends and the gender differences in coverage identified in our study suggest that risks of child mortality, especially for girls at higher birth orders, need to be addressed both socially and programmatically. ABSTRACT IN HINDI : See the full article online for a translation of this abstract in Hindi.

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The Association between Childhood Immunization and Gender Inequality: A Multi-Country Ecological Analysis of Zero-Dose DTP Prevalence and DTP3 Immunization Coverage.

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