Accuracy of mother’s reporting on child immunization in Yemen between 2012 and 2013

Abstract

There is a complex interaction between infectious diseases and child nutritional status as infections usually entail some nutritional setback and vice versa. Therefore, vaccination against childhood infectious diseases is an important preventive measure against malnutrition itself, playing a key role in reducing child mortality. However, whereas referring to vaccination coverage it is crucial to have it clear how this coverage is measured, once it may vary considerably depending on the source of information. While child vaccination status is obtained from medical records in developed countries, in developing countries, they are mostly taken from vaccination cards and/or mothers’ reports. Nevertheless, some researchers have come to diverse conclusions in terms of the accuracy of parents’ reports. Based on a rich longitudinal household survey available for Yemen collected in 2012 – 2013, we find that although mothers’ reports should not be discarded when estimating vaccination coverage (otherwise, coverage would be extremely overestimated), this information should be used with caution.