Immunization status of children in North India Table 1. Demographic profiles of patients studied Completely immunized (n=58) No. Partially immunized (n=156) No. % Non-immunized (n=111) Total (100%) 51 7 39 19 52 6 39 19 6 52 6 38 14 58 0 0 52 6 6 52 12 46 % 34.46 3.95 37.50 8.55 35.37 3.37 18.06 17.43 3.00 41.60 3.31 42.22 25.93 42.03 0 0 29.55 4.03 2.64 53.06 5.15 50.00 No. 39 72 26 85 32 79 72 39 91 20 85 0 26 20 20 71 52 59 91 20 104 7 % 26.35 40.68 25.00 38.46 21.77 44.38 33.33 35.78 45.50 16.00 46.96 0 48.15 14.49 76.92 44.10 29.55 39.60 40.09 20.41 44.64 7.61 Variable Sex Male Female Place Delhi Outside Religion Hindu Other Family Joint Nuclear Delivery Vaginal Caesarean Place of delivery Home Government centre Private Delivered by Doctor Trained dai Untrained Birth-order ≤2 >2 Education of fathers ≤primary >primary Education of mothers ≤primary >primary 58 98 39 117 63 93 105 51 103 53 90 52 14 60 6 90 72 84 130 26 117 39 39.19 55.37 37.50 52.94 42.86 52.25 48.61 46.79 51.50 42.40 49.72 57.78 25.93 43.48 23.08 55.90 40.91 56.38 57.27 26.53 50.21 42.39 148 177 104 221 147 178 216 109 200 125 181 90 54 138 26 161 176 149 227 98 233 92 Kumar D et al. p value <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.926 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.821 0.021 0.016 When the characteristics of the group with com- plete immunization were compared with the com- bined non-immunized or partially-immunized group, there was significant effect (p<0.001) of sex, education of fathers and mothers, place of delivery, and religion. Similar results were obtained when the group with complete or partial immunization combined was compared with the non-immu- nized group. When logistic regression was applied to compare the group having complete or partial immunization with the group having no immu- nization, the immunization status of children was affected by place of delivery [home vs hospital or private odds ratio (OR)=2.307, 95% CI-1.3-4.1], education of mothers (primary vs more than pri- 302 mary OR=6.94, 95% CI 3.016-15.099), and religion (Hindu vs rest OR=1.75, 95% CI 1.012-3.034) (data not shown). The common reasons for partial immunization and non-immunization were: lack of knowledge about immunization (30.3%); immunization has side- effects (28.8%); lack of knowledge about subse- quent doses (22.09%); lack of faith in the effec- tiveness of immunization (21.7%); and OPV was thought to be the only vaccination (20.9%) Table 2 shows the reasons for partial immunization or non-immunization. The single most com- mon reason for partial vaccination was lack of knowledge about subsequent doses, and for non- JHPN