Vaccination coverage in the districts of the city of Castellon and the relationship with sociodemographic factors: an ecologic study
García, E.; Vioque, J.
Medicina Clinica 101(9): 333-337
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-7753 PMID: 8412398 Document Number: 407679
The state of vaccination in 1987 of those born in the city of Castellon and the relation with a group of sociodemographic variables by districts collected from a study based on the census of inhabitants of 1986 was analyzed. The state of vaccination of each child was obtained from the Computerized Municipal Registry of Vaccinations with good vaccination being considered when the child had received all the doses corresponding to the age of two years (four doses of oral trivalent poliomyelitis and three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and one dose of diphtheria-tetanus and one dose of triple virus) and was considered as badly vaccinated when one of the doses had been missed. Following classification of each child according to the district of residence, the effect of the state of vaccination, the sex of the child and the month of birth as well as the group of variables collected in the district (ecologic base), the relative risks were estimated by logistic regression analysis. Neither the sex of the child nor the month of birth had any relation with the risk of being badly vaccinated. Upon analysis of the effect being born in a determined district had, five presented between two and four times less risk of bad vaccination than that taken by reference (La Vila) and another three presented up to two times more risk. Among the significant predictors of risk of bad vaccination the following were found: crowding, old age, rate of dependence, rate of widowhood, and the proportion of single people, while the percentage of active women and the density of population were protective. In multivariant analysis, only the proportion of single people and the number of active women persisted as significant predictors. Although great inequality has been reported in vaccination coverage among the districts of the city of Castellon, the general coverage of the city may be considered as satisfactory in the light of the criteria used and from comparisons with other similar studies. The associations found between bad vaccination and some sociodemographic variables by districts (proportion of single people, and active women) together with possible methodologic limitations, do not allow the important inequalities found to be satisfactorily explained.