Abstract

Background: Childhood immunization is a grave public health success in many developing countries. There is always need of local level data to supplement the national level survey, hence we conducted the present study to assess the immunization coverage. Materials And Methods:This community based cross sectional study was conducted in urban and rural areas of Lucknow district over a period of 18 months inchildren up to 5 years of age. A total of 410 children were included. Data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire, which was administered by the lead author during a face-to-face interview. Results:Overall 84.3% children were fully immunized, 14.7% children were partially immunized while 1% children were not immunized at all. Percentage of fully immunized children was higher in the urban areas (91.2%) as compared to the rural areas (82%, P < 0.05). The drop-out rate from BCG to measles was 13.26%. In the urban areas the drop-out rate was 7.35% as opposed to 19.21% in the rural areas (P < 0.05) . Overall the drop-out rate from DPT-3 to measles was 3.55%; with drop-out rates in urban and rural areas being a close 3.57% and 3.52% respectively (P > 0.05). Conclusion:The results suggest that the immunization status in Lucknow district is marginally better than the state statistics, however, there is further need of proper information education and counseling especially in the rural areas.

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