India's Universal Immunisation Programme to prevent children from preventable disease: retention and dropout approach

Abstract

BackgroundThe Universal Immunisation Programme was integrated with the Reproductive and Child Health Programme to improve childhood immunisation in India. However, there is a lack of empirical research on understanding about childhood immunisation by the standard schedule of WHO. This study aimed to estimate the level of retention and dropouts from one vaccination to the next among Indian children aged 12–23 months.MethodsWe use data from the nationwide District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3), which was carried out in all 596 districts and covered 64 702 children aged 12–23 months in India during 2007–08. We used the Kaplan–Meier method to assess the retention rate of childhood..