Full Immunization Coverage and Associated Factors among Children Aged 12-23 Months in a Hard-to-Reach Areas of Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: Childhood immunization averts 2.5 million annual child deaths globally. However, poor monitoring, possibly due to a lack of locally available data on immunization, might affect full protection of vaccines from Vaccine Preventable Diseases. This study was aimed at bringing data about immunization service coverage and its associated factors from Sekota Zuria district, which is one of the hard-to-reach areas in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September 20 to October 28, 2017, among 620 children aged 12-23 months in seven randomly selected rural kebeles of Sekota Zuria district. Socio-demographic child conditions and vaccine-related data were collected using a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with immunization coverage at a p-value ≤ 0.05. Crude and Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with their confidence interval were reported. RESULTS: 77.4% (95%CI: 74.0%-80.6%) of children aged 12-23 months were fully immunized. Having antenatal care visit (AOR=2.75, 95%CI: 1.52-5.0), higher level of maternal education (AOR=2.39, 95%CI: 1.06-5.36), mothers' good knowledge on immunization (AOR=3.70, 95%CI: 2.37-5.79), short distance to health facility (AOR=2.65, 95%CI: 1.61-4.36), and being born in health institutions (AOR=2.58, 95%CI: 1.66-3.99) had increased the odds of full immunization coverage while having five and more family size reduced the odds of children's vaccine uptake (AOR=0.62, 95%CI: 0.38-0.99). CONCLUSION: Full immunization coverage of the district was lower than the target set by the World Health Organization. Improving mother's health seeking behavior toward pregnancy follow-up and enhancing mothers' knowledge on child immunization, strengthening outreach services, community engagement, and actively working with local community-based health agents are recommended to increase number of children to be vaccinated.