Authors : 1Rathavuth Hong and 2James Bata
Abstract: Monitoring immunization coverage is increasingly important to the government of Pakistan and development agencies to evaluate the progress and the success of the Expended Program of Immunization (EPI), which sustainability is unstable. The aim of this study was to compare the DPT3 coverage obtained by two methods: EPI reporting system data and UNICEF household survey data at district-level available from 140 districts throughout Pakistan. There comparable data were available in 34 districts in 1999; 72 districts in 2000; and 34 districts in 2002. We found that the reporting data do not correspond with the household data in terms of DPT3 coverage except for the data of 2002 from 34 districts. On average the district-level DPT3 rates from reporting data was about 14 % higher than the household survey data, i.e., 77.1 % versus 62.8 %. These findings indicated that the immunization data from household survey should be used in program organizing and planning whenever applicable and the interpretation of data from the EPI reporting system should be done with due precautions.
1Rathavuth Hong and 2James Bata , 2005. Reporting Data and Household Survey Data in Monitoring and Evaluation District Immunization Coverage in Pakistan . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 3: 541-543.