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Measles immunization coverage in Namibia has not yet reached the WHO target of 90% in all provinces and districts, particularly in Luderitz district. The study aimed to determine the factors associated with the uptake of measles immunization among children in Luderitz district. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 parents/caregivers and their children who visited Luderitz clinic during July 2019 to August 2019. A developed questionnaire collected data on the several factors including child-related ,health service related and the perception of parents/caregivers. Data was analysed using STATA 14. Measles immunization uptake was 61% and significantly associated with child’s age (p=0.001) and gender (p=0.003), parents/caregivers age (p≤0.0001), gender (p=0.021), marital status (p≤0.0001) and employment status (p=0.009). Barriers to measles immunization were mainly inconvenient vaccination time (44%) and forgetfulness (25%) while suggested cues to action, were sending the reminders (30%), providing immunization the whole day (40%) and health education and promotion. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Measles is a highly contagious virus that can affect the entire population if an effective immunisation programme is not in place. This study was aimed at determining the measles immunisation coverage and the dropout rate among children aged between 6 months and 14 years and at assessing factors associated with caregivers’ knowledge and perception of, and attitude towards the measles immunisation programme. Between 14 May 2018 and 31 July 2018, a descriptive, cross-sectional study design was conducted using simple random sampling to sample 381 caregivers of children at nine public health facilities at Tshwane Sub-district 2, Hammanskraal town. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire and observational checklist, and analysed using IBM SPSS version 23.0. Overall, the measles immunization coverage was 95.8% (365/381) and the MCV1-MCV2 dropout rate was 4.1%. The association between educational level and employment status (correlation coefficient=0.157**, p=0.0002), measles knowledge (correlation coefficient=-0.244**, p=0.000), immunization importance (correlation coefficient=-0.194**, p=0.000) and measles vaccine schedule (correlation coefficient=-0.138**, p=0.007) were found to be significant at p<0.05. The findings in this study revealed that caregivers’ positive attitude towards, and knowledge of measles immunisation programme resulted in high measles immunisation coverage and low dropout rate. It is recommended that continuous positive immunisation education about the benefits and importance be emphasized in order to increase immunisation uptake. / Health Studies / M. P. H.