Peer-reviewed article
Association between the continuum of maternal healthcare services and child immunisation in East Africa: a propensity score matching analysis
Alemayehu Kasu Gebrehana, Angwach Abrham Asnake, Beminate Lemma Seifu, Bezawit Melak Fente, Meklit Melaku Bezie et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined whether children of mothers who received comprehensive maternal healthcare were more likely to be fully immunised. Using data from East African Demographic and Health Surveys covering nearly 13,500 mothers with children aged 12-23 months, researchers found that children whose mothers received complete maternal care had about 6% higher probability of being fully immunised. The findings suggest that integrating immunisation services into maternal healthcare programmes could improve childhood vaccination coverage.
Key points
- Children of mothers with complete maternal continuum of care had 5.83% higher probability of full immunisation (treatment effect on treated)
- Population average treatment effect was 6.29%, indicating comprehensive maternal healthcare increases full child immunisation probability by approximately 6.29% across the entire population
- The association represents a 7.48% increase relative to the treated group's baseline immunisation rate
- Study used propensity score matching to control for confounding factors in cross-sectional DHS data
- Authors recommend integrating immunisation services into maternal healthcare programmes and improving access to maternal healthcare in underserved regions
Limitations
As a cross-sectional study, this research cannot establish causation, only association, and cannot rule out unmeasured confounding. The study measures immunisation status at a single time point rather than tracking it over time.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the maternal continuum of healthcare and child immunisation in East Africa using propensity score matching (PSM). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using Demographic and Health Survey data. SETTING: This study was conducted in East African countries. PARTICIPANTS: This study included a weighted sample of 13 488 women with children aged 12-23 months. OUTCOME MEASURE: Child immunisation was the outcome variable of this study. RESULTS: The PSM estimates indicate that the average treatment effect on the treated for complete child immunisation was 0.0583, meaning that children of mothers who received a complete maternal continuum of care had a 5.83% higher probability of being fully immunised compared with children of mothers with incomplete care. Expressed relative to the treated group's mean, this corresponds to a 7.48% increase. Additionally, our results indicated that the population average treatment effect was 0.0629. This means that, on average, a complete continuum of maternal healthcare increases the probability of full child immunisation by approximately 6.29% across the entire population. CONCLUSION: The study highlights that children whose mothers receive comprehensive maternal healthcare are more likely to complete their childhood immunisations. This finding underscores the need to integrate immunisation services into maternal healthcare programmes to enhance vaccination coverage and promote better child health. To maximise this connection, improving access to maternal healthcare, especially in underserved regions, is crucial, along with ensuring that immunisation is a regular part of maternal care.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Integrated maternal and child health services, specifically ensuring immunisation is a regular part of maternal care
- Population
- Children aged 12-23 months whose mothers participated in East African Demographic and Health Surveys (n=13,488 weighted sample)
Key finding
Children of mothers with complete maternal continuum of care had 5.83 percentage points higher probability of full immunisation (average treatment effect on treated)