Abstract
Objectives: The timely delivery of immunization services to infants and children by medical personnel is essentially one of the most important components of the entire medical services meant for the infant population. The two objectives of this research were to determine the utilization of immunization services by infants and children over a period of 6 years, through 1987 to 1992, and also to assess whether their residential styles influence the utilization of these immunization services. Method: The relevant recorded data about infants and children was collected on a pretested proforma by physicians attached to 60 primary health care centres of Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia, which were randomly selected to represent the main four types of residential strata.
Results: It was shown that sparing the second and third dose of poliomyelitis and DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) (p > 0.05), led to significant successive enhancement in the utilization of other immunization services (p < 0.001). Furthermore, there was a significant improvement during the study period in the utilization of these services across different residential styles (p < 0.0001). However, in each year the immunization services were more or less equitably utilized by infants and children belonging to different subgroups of residential zones (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Evidently there is further need to monitor the timely delivery of immunization services to this sector of the population by better implementing the computerized information system at each primary health care centre which will not only reduce the attrition rates but ensure the cost-effectiveness and quality of delivery of infants and child health services.