Introduction: Co-administration of the bilié de Calmette et Guérin (BCG) and birth doses of oral polio (OPV zero) and hepatitis B (HepB BD) vaccines is strongly recommended. The objective was to determine the factors associated with this co-administration in the health district of Podor (Senegal).
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 726 children aged 12 to 23 months. This was a two-stage cluster sampling. The data was collected in June 2020. An electronic questionnaire was developed using the Open Data Kit Collect application. Co-administration was modeled as one dose, two doses and three doses. Ordinal logistic regression was used to search for factors likely to influence co-administration.
Results: Of the 726 children, 115 (16%), 234 (32%) and 377 (52%) received a single dose, two and three doses, respectively. Factors associated with co-administration were recognition by mothers or caregivers that several vaccines can be administered simultaneously (adjusted OR = 1.46, p-value = 0.017), availability of a health record kept at home (adjusted OR = 6.88, p-value = 0.006), hospitalization of the newborn after birth (adjusted OR = 1.74, p-value = 0.002) and receipt of advice during postnatal care (adjusted OR = 1.72, p-value = 0.01).
Conclusion: Co-administration of birth doses is an infrequent practice in Podor. Awareness and availability and proper maintenance of health information management tools would be necessary.