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How do I calculate age-specific immunization rates for <5 children [message #2547] Thu, 10 July 2014 12:27 Go to next message
bdreen is currently offline  bdreen
Messages: 1
Registered: July 2014
Member
Hello, I am trying to calculate the age-specific immunization rates for children aged <5 years for a few countries. The DHS reports includes immunization rates for children aged 12-23 months. I suppose I could calculate the overall rate for children aged 12-59 months in a similar way. How can I calculate the age-specific immunization rate particularly for children aged <1 year? Since EPI schedule is different for children of different ages due to introduction of Penta later in the schedule of most of the countries, country specific immunization information is needed to know if penta was given or not. Data sets typically include information on BCG, DPT, Polio and measles together and then later penta or hepB and Hib. So, if a data set later includes penta or hepB and Hib, can we assume that DPT was given as part of penta and calculate the percentage of children receiving all doses of age-specific EPI vaccinates if children aged 12-59 months received DPT, 3 doses of DPT, 3 doses of polio and single measles vaccine?

Then DHS reports from some of the countries are in languages other than English and I could not read about country-specific immunization information from the report. I use STATA for data analysis. Please help.
Re: How do I calculate age-specific immunization rates for <5 children [message #2653 is a reply to message #2547] Fri, 01 August 2014 14:54 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Dear User,
We have received your post and have submitted it to one of our experts. As soon as we have an answer for you we will get back to you. Our experts are currently quite busy but will address your post as soon as they are able. Thank you.
Re: How do I calculate age-specific immunization rates for <5 children [message #2719 is a reply to message #2547] Fri, 15 August 2014 00:29 Go to previous message
Trevor-DHS is currently offline  Trevor-DHS
Messages: 805
Registered: January 2013
Senior Member
When you say that you want to calculate age-specific immunization rates for children under 5, do you mean that you are checking the age of the child in months and comparing that to whether the child should have received the vaccination? For example, assuming that DPT is given at 6, 10 and 14 weeks, are you checking that with the date of birth and date of vaccination? Or are you just saying for each age in years what proportion have received a particular immunization. If not, then I'm not sure what you mean by age-specific vaccination rate.

You also talk about country specific immunization schedule information and the introduction of Pentavalent. Are you looking for the date at which Pentavalent is introduced in the country or the age at which it is given in the vaccination schedule? The UNICEF immunization summary can give some information on the introduction of Hepatitis B and Hib. This summary guide has a page for each country and lists the vaccine coverage rates for each vaccine, including Hep B 3 and Hib 3. From this you can get an idea of when the vaccines were introduced nationally.

If a survey lists pentavalent as a vaccine, but the variables for DPT are not used, I think you can assume that the pentavalent vaccine included DPT. If Hep B and or Hib were listed, but not referred to as Pentavalent, I would not assume that DPT was given as these vaccines are given in some countries as single vaccines.

I'm not sure if this answers your questions. If you need further clarification, please let us know.
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