In the spirit of “living no one behind”, efforts need to be made to investigate every single factor that may impede a child from receiving his/her vaccinations, particularly in settings where coverage has been stagnant or slipping backward. Driven by this vision, we examined the immunization experiences of children’s caregivers in Cameroon, to identify potential barriers to timely and complete child vaccination. Based on our findings, majority of caregivers expressed satisfaction with the immunization services provided. Nonetheless, there were some remarkable concerns raised including long waiting periods, inconsistencies in immunization service delivery, and insufficient communication regarding outreach activities.
Most (87%) of the respondents in our study reported to be satisfied with the immunization service quality. Our findings are similar to reports from Ethiopia (84.7%), India (91.9–95.9%) and Zambia (82.7%) [12, 27, 28]. However, the satisfaction rate in our study was higher than what was reported in other studies in Iraq (50.2%), Egypt (63%) and Ethiopia (68.2%) [29–31]. This variance could be due to real differences in immunization service quality, sociocultural differences, and different techniques of assessing satisfaction, among other reasons. Understanding the level and reasons for client satisfaction with immunization services is key for the development of quality improvement strategies for immunization service delivery in Cameroon.
While many caregivers appeared to be satisfied with immunization services, some expressed resounding concerns including long waiting times. The median waiting time for vaccination was 1 hour 48 minutes, with regional median waiting times ranging from 18 minutes in the South region to 4 hours 6 minutes in the North region. This marked variation could be explained by the relative differences in health workforce and health facility densities and distributions over the national territory. For example, according to the Ministry of public health’s 2016 Health Map and 2018 Health Unit Profile, the South region had the highest number of health facilities per 10,000 population (3.71 in 2016 and 3.84 in 2018) as opposed to the three Northern regions that had the lowest ranging from 0.92 to 1.48 [32]. Long immunization waiting time is also most likely linked to healthcare workers’ attitudes and practices with regards to opening multi-dose vials (waiting for a certain number of children to be present before a vial is opened). Our findings are comparable to those reported by GebreEyesus et al in Ethiopia [29] and Udonwa et al in Nigeria[33], where 79% and 62.4% of health facilities, respectively, had a vaccination waiting time of greater than 30 minutes. Waiting time has been shown in multiple studies to be a major driver of caregiver satisfaction with childhood immunization services[12, 33, 34]. As such, exploring ways to shorten service waiting times may improve the immunization experience and enhance the utilization of immunization services in our setting.
In our study, about one in four caregivers (24%) reported presenting to a facility for immunization services and being turned away without achieving the purpose for which they came for at least once. This is higher than 14.7% reported in a similar national assessment in Zambia [12]. This practice, which may be linked to health workforce deficits, vaccine stockouts and the fact that many health facilities do not offer immunization daily, could contribute to missed opportunities for vaccination. This highlights the need to strengthen the vaccine supply chain and immunization workforce, expand immunization services in health facilities by offering them daily or at least more frequently, and improve communication between health facilities and caregivers to ensure that they are aware of the days and times when immunization services are available.
Our study also identified suboptimal community engagement in the planning and execution of outreaches. Indeed, about half (48%) of surveyed caregivers had never heard about planned vaccination activities in their communities, reaffirming the above claim. this finding highlights the need to strengthen community engagement in vaccination service delivery in Cameroon, as this is key for building trust in the healthcare system and narrowing inequities in immunization coverage.
Although our study has unveiled important barriers to optimal immunization service delivery from a caregiver perspective in Cameroon, certain limitations must be considered while interpreting the findings of our study. Caregiver interviews were done at the facility in the presence of health care workers, thus, it is possible that the data collected would be biased towards a favorable impression of the facility. Secondly, satisfaction was assessed only at a general level and may mask variations in satisfaction that exist when satisfaction is assessed in in smaller domains (e.g., facility cleanliness, waiting time, health worker attitude, information dissemination and confidentiality). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first nationwide study assessing caregivers’ perspectives oof immunization service delivery in Cameroon, while highlighting noteworthy regional differences. As such, addressing challenges faced by caregivers may go a long way to improve their experience with immunization services, which in turn may improve their acceptance of this cost-effective primary health care intervention and by extension, national immunization coverage in Cameroon.