Advantage of the shrinkage estimator in establishing the main Determinants of Immunization in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya

Abstract

The client factors that influence under-five child guardian compliance to the immunization schedule are interlinked based on household characteristics, socioeconomic status of the family, and maternal health practices. An incentive to motivate the mothers to prioritize their children health practices especially on vaccination works perfectly towards to achievement of full immunization coverage. Illustrated by a randomly sampled study carried out within Weonia location, Trans-Nzoia County in March 2014 whose target population were children under the age of five years. A Multinomial logistic regression model used to analyze the determinant of partial or none-immunized and the parameters estimated using the maximum likelihood estimator and the shrinkage estimator - Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator. The shrinkage estimator method gave a sparse model that was easy to interpret and increased the estimated predictability accuracy. The shrinkage estimator identified factors that mainly influenced the level of compliance to the immunization schedule as household size, level of child health awareness, maternal health practices and access to an intervention in form of an incentive by the child‟s parents/guardian. Maternal health practices and access to a motivating intervention are significant factors that ensure a guardian‟s compliance to their child immunization. More should be done towards the implementation of the current intervention, educate the community on the essence of vaccination and further introduce a reminder intervention since this helps to reduce the incidences of ignorance, laziness, and forgetfulness by mothers about their children‟s vaccination.