Vaccine-specific Aspects Associated with the Abandonment of Early Childhood Vaccination in the City of Kisangani, DR Congo

In Kisangani, the dropout rate of 17.5% among children aged 12 to 23 months is higher than the threshold of less than 10% tolerated by the WHO, despite the free availability of vaccines. This study aims to analyze vaccine-specific aspects in order to identify predictors associated with vaccine dropout among children aged 12 to 23 months. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted from October 25, 2022 to February 25, 2023 among mothers of 336 children aged 12 to 23 months in Kisangani. A pre-tested and administered questionnaire was used for data collection based on three-stage cluster sampling. Analyses were performed on STATA 13 using stepwise logistic regression with a threshold of 0.05. A total of 336 children aged 12 to 23 months from 5 health zones in the city of Kisangani were included in the analysis. We observed a 37.5% prevalence of early childhood vaccination drop-out in Kisangani. After adjustment by multivariate logistic regression, the following determinants were significantly associated with drop-out from early childhood vaccination : preference for vaccine administration mode, refusal of a vaccine during a mass campaign, delay in vaccinating when a new vaccine is introduced, lack of confidence in vaccinators who go door-to-door, preference of vaccination site, presence of adverse events following immunization and poor reception by health professionals. Thus, the results of this study can help planners, policy-makers and decision-makers to focus on both individuals and the communities in which they live.