The status of accessing some health programs in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in children 6-36 months old at the nutrition clinic of Children's Hospital in 1 Ho Chi Minh City in 2021

Abstract

In the COVID-19 pandemic, many health programs have been disrupted. The study describes the status of access to health care programs for children aged 6 - 36 months old. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out from November 2021 to March 2022 (after the time of the fourth outbreak) on 398 children aged 6 - 36 months old who visited the Nutrition Clinic of Children’s Hospital 1 - HCMC. The results show that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the access to activities such as high-dose vitamin A supplementation, timely vaccination, and deworming for children aged 6 - 36 months attending nutritional checkups at Children’s Hospital 1 is still low and does not meet the targets: the percentage of mothers taking high-dose vitamin A supplements after birth was 73.9%, and the percentage of children taking high-dose vitamin A supplements in 6 months was 79.1%. The rate of getting enough vaccines on schedule reached 68.6%, and the rate of children deworming within six months reached 50.8%. Although the rate of access to children’s health programs in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic is lower than in previous years, it is still a very encouraging achievement.