Introduction: It is very important to analyze the factors which acts as obstacle in achieving 100% immunization among children. Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) is one of the effective method to assess such barriers.
Aim: To assess the full immunization coverage among 12 to 23-month old children of rural field practice area under Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Government Medical College and identify the factors for failure of full immunization.
Materials and methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2013 to October 2014 on children aged 12 to 23 months old of area under Mohanpur Community health centre. Using LQAS technique 330 samples were selected with multi-stage sampling, each sub-centre being one lot and two calculated to be the decision value. Data was collected using pre-designed pre-tested questionnaire during home visit and verifying immunization card and analysed by computer software SPSS version 21.0.
Results: The full immunization coverage among 12 to 23 months old children of Mohanpur area was found as 91.67%. Out of all the 22 sub-centres, 36.36% was found under performing as per pre-fixed criteria and the main reasons for failure of full immunization in those areas are unawareness of need of subsequent doses of vaccines and illness of the children.
Conclusion: LQAS is an effective method to identify areas of under-performance even though overall full immunization coverage is high.
Keywords: Agartala; Lot quality coverage survey; National Family Health Survey; Vaccine preventable diseases.