A study to identify factors influencing immunization coverage in urban slums of Bhubaneswar

Under-5 mortality rate of urban poorest was 85 per 1,000 live births where was 27 per 1,000 live births in urban wealthiest. It was estimated that 40% urban population of Bhubaneswar were slum dwellers. The main objective of the study was to assess the immunization coverage and to identify barriers for poor coverage in urban slums of Bhubaneswar in Odisha. Required sample is 200 with design effect 2, 10% precision, 95 % confidence interval and estimated immunization coverage of odisha was 59.5% (CES 2009). Fifty six percent (56%) of children were completely immunized, 39.5% were partially immunized and 4.5% had not received any vaccine. Dropout rate was high between BCG and Measles was 22.0%, followed by DPT-1 Measles dropout rate was 21.5%, BCG to DPT 3 dropout rate was 4.4% and DPT 1 to DPT 3 dropout rate was 3.8%. Immunization status was significantly associated with variables like social class, mother education, location of urban health centre, family income and presence of immunization card. Routine immunization coverage was low mainly because of poor measles coverage. Special attention is required for improving measles coverage and can be increased by integrating with mother and child tracking system (MCTS).