Factors affecting immunization behaviors in less privileged communities. A case study of Kasokoso village

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to examine the factors affecting immunization behavior in Kasokoso Village, Mbuya, Kampala district. A survey was conducted with the help of a questionnaire developed with Open Data Kit through face to face interviews from 96 respondents selected randomly from different households in Kasokoso village. The data collected was analyzed with the use of STATA packages and all inference made was entirely based on results of this analysis, descriptive statistics such as Mean, Standard Deviation, correlation tests and logistic regression were used to analyze the data that was collected. This analysis revealed immunization behavior is significantly and positively influenced by radio usage, immunization awareness and married marital status for women while the awareness of basic vaccination and post-secondary significantly influenced immunization to the negative direction, all at 5% level of significance. Results showed that a unit increase in radio usage increases immunization behavior by 0.235 (coef = 0.235, p_value = 0.023), a unit increase in awareness of basic vaccination reduces immunization behavior by 0.204 (coef = - 0.204, p_value=0.016), it was also discovered that a unit increase in immunization awareness increases immunization behavior by 0.195 (coef = 0.195, p_value = 0.011) and also that a unit increase in the number of married women increases immunization behavior by 0.173 (coef = 0.173, p_value = 0.046). It was also discovered that a unit increase in the number of women with post-secondary education decreases immunization behavior by 0.028 (coef = -0.028, p_value = 0.049). Basing on the results from my analysis, women should engage more in income generating activities so as to increase immunization behavior in Kasokoso Village. Since it was observed that awareness of basic vaccination negatively affects immunization behavior, women are encouraged to change their attitude towards vaccination as this will increase a more positive attitude towards immunization behavior. Only a few of the factors influencing immunization behavior were considered in this research and so researchers were advised to expand their scope in the proceeding studies so as to explore more of the factors that may have a significant influence on immunization behavior.