The Factors Associated with Incomplete Vaccination among Children below 4 Years in Holy Karbala/Iraq

Background: Vaccines has an essential role for the prevention of infectious diseases. It has an important role in promoting child survival, several reasons are related to incomplete vaccination of children. Objectives: To find out the reasons related to incomplete vaccination among children under five years in Karbala city. Method: A cross sectional study, convenient sample of 400 children was approached who attended primary health care centers in urban and rural areas in Karbala city. Data collection done between the first of March to 30th of June, 2019 through direct interview using a questionnaire adapted from similar researches. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 24 was used for data analysis and P value of a level < 0.05 considered significant. Results: The most (22.2%) reported reason for incomplete vaccination that are related to the health centers was unavailability of vaccine. Child sickness (33.5%) and fear of adverse effects (31.5%) were the most reported reasons for incomplete vaccination that are related to the family and child. Conclusions: Unavailability of vaccine, child sickness and fear of adverse effect were the most reported reasons for incomplete vaccination.