Factors Influencing Routine Vaccination of Children of Mothers Live-Stock Retailers in the Markets of Yaoundé

Abstract

Background: The job of mothers though having a positive impact on the family could be detrimental to children’s health due to her unavailability. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out from March to August 2014. Mothers of children aged 11 - 48 months were interviewed to determine factors which could influence the vaccination of their children. Results: A total of 265 mothers were interviewed. Despite their occupations, they completely vaccinated all of their children. The vaccination coverage of tracer antigens (third dose of DPT/HiB/HepB) was high 97.7% as well as the proportion of children completely vaccinated (91.7%). A mastery of the vaccination calendar of the site, and resumption of activities when the children were more than 4 months old, significantly influenced the completion of vaccination. Only 6 children (2.3%) were not correctly or incompletely vaccinated. The reason given by their mothers were: the lack of time (45.0%), the adverse effects of vaccines (27.0%), forgetfulness (18%), and shortage of vaccines supplies (5.0%). Conclusions: Occupation was not a hindrance to the vaccination of children of live-stock retailers. The problem of absent or incomplete vaccination could be overcome by improving the strategies of social mobilisation, permitting the sensitisation of mothers hesitant to vaccinate their children. A regular supply of vaccines will reduce the missed opportunities, thus maintaining high vaccination coverage in this social group.