Some Socio-Economic and Demographic Characteristics of Parents/Caregivers and Implication on Birth Registration Coverage in Gombe State, Nigeria

This study is designed to assess some Socio-economic and demographic characteristics of parents/caregivers such as age, sex, marital status, religion, occupation, educational background and residential ownership status (independent variables) and their influence on birth registration (dependent variable) coverage in Gombe State. The findings were based on primary data sourced from the field through questionnaire survey, interview and field observation and secondary data on population, localities and registered live-birth data collected from the National Population Commission for a period of eight years (20002008). A total of 1530 respondents who were heads of households and parents/caregivers of eligible/registerable children aged 0-20 years were interviewed. It was conceptually hypothesized that the independent variables have influence on the dependent variable. Use was made of tests, percentages and cross tabulations in an attempt to analyze the influence. The analysis of the data revealed that, almost all the respondents were males and married. The paper further observed that all the independent variables with the exception of sex and marital status are found to have significant influence on the dependent variable. It is therefore suggested that for birth registration system to be effective, permanent and sustained a long term approach such as its integration into immunization and other early child development programmes are needed alongside aggressive enlightenment campaigns to be undertaken by all the principal stakeholders and to be directed mainly towards the rural areas. More registration centres should also be established in the nucleus of rural population.