Compliance with the vaccination schedule in children hospitalized with pneumonia and associated factors

To verify the adequacy and factors associated with compliance with the immunization schedule (BCG, DTP-Hib, MMR, PCV-10) in children hospitalized with pneumonia at a pediatric referral hospital in Northeast Brazil.

This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with an analytical component, with a sample of 452 children hospitalized with pneumonia at the Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira, between 2010 and 2013. The inclusion criterion was children aged from one month to less than five years of age with proof in the immunization record. The exclusion criterion was the presence of hospital-acquired pneumonia or concomitant disease. We have evaluated the adequacy of the immunization schedule for the BCG, tetravalent, MMR, and 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate (PCV-10) vaccines. We used the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test followed by multivariate Poisson regression, estimating the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and respective 95% confidence intervals. The variables with p < 0.20 in the univariate analysis were included in the multivariate analysis.

There was good adequacy in the immunization schedule, except for PCV-10, which presented a percentage lower than 85%. We have observed an association between adequate compliance with the immunization schedule and education level of the mother (89.9% complete high school), sex of the child (87.2% female), age of the child (94.2% younger than six months), and breastfeeding (84.3% breastfed).

Given the high rate of education level of the mother and the high percentage of breastfeeding, we can understand that there is a better understanding of the health of the child by the mothers studied in this study, showing the effectiveness of public policies for infant feeding. However, children did not have good adequacy of the immunization schedule of PCV-10, one of the main vaccines against pneumonia, which can be one of the main factors in the causes of hospitalization, with no influence on the classification of the severity of the disease. In this way, we emphasize that the causes of pneumonia morbidity are not associated with a single factor.