Vaccination Status and Its Determinants Among Children Aged 12 to 23 Months in Mettu and Sinana Districts, Oromia Region, Ethiopia: A Comparative Cross Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Globally, more than 19 million children have not received all of their vaccination benefits, resulting in an estimated one million deaths worldwide each year. Vaccine-preventable diseases are becoming more common in Ethiopia, despite the fact that official vaccination coverage is sufficient to develop herd immunity locally for some diseases such as measles. This mistrust of the official report prompted us to conduct a community survey and compare it to other areas where there have been no reports of vaccine-preventable disease. METHODS: A community-based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted from 20/01–20/02/2021 in Sinana and Mettu districts. Probability proportional to estimate size was used to select 23 clusters. We recruited 228 from Mettu and 436 from Sinana by systematic random sampling. We used a structured questionnaire to collected data from mother–child pair using card and history. We conducted independent t-tests to test coverage differences between districts. We identified determinants of full vaccination status by multivariate logistic regression analysis after bivariate candidate selection. RESULTS: Fully vaccinated children accounted for 62.7% in Sinana and 91.6% in Mettu, demonstrating a significant coverage difference (p<0.001). Being a resident of Mettu (AOR: 3.5, 95% CI [1.5, 6.9]), intended pregnancy (AOR 5.9, 95% CI [2.4, 11.3]), 4 or more antenatal care visits (AOR: 2.09, 95% CI [1.4, 3]), having postnatal care (AOR: 3.5, 95% CI [1.6, 7.9]), younger child age (AOR: 0.87, 95% CI [0.8, 0.9]), having up to three children (AOR 3, 95% CI [1.13, 8]) and good knowledge of vaccine schedule (AOR: 2.4, 95% CI [1.4, 4]) were associated positively with full vaccination status. CONCLUSION: Full vaccination status was 91.6% in Mettu and 62.7% in Sinana district. Place of residence, ANC, PNC, pregnancy intention, child number, age of child and knowledge of vaccination schedule were significantly associated with vaccination status of the children.