Abstract
Background
Pregnant women are an ideal target population for interventions intended to immunize infants after birth. Lack of confidence in vaccines among pregnant women increases vaccine hesitancy or refusal.
Aim
This study aims to determine the frequency, causes, and risk factors of pediatric intention to vaccinate and vaccine hesitancy and refusal in pregnant women.
Methods
Data were collected using a questionnaire designed by the researchers and included items about descriptive characteristics of women and their vaccine hesitancy and refusal. The study was used with the STROBE Statement checklist.
Results
Pediatric vaccine acceptance in pregnant women was 72.2%, the prevalence of vaccine refusal was 3.4%, and the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy was 24.4%. The vaccine that women were hesitant to get administered to their infants in the first place after birth was the pneumococcal vaccine (17.2%), and Tdab was the vaccine that they intended to have administered to their infants the most(76.3%). According to the multivariate logistic regression model, which was adjusted for age, education, income, and gestational week, vaccine hesitancy was significantly higher in pregnant women (OR = 15.14) who stated that they would not have screening tests such as hearing and heel blood done after birth (p < 0.0001).Vaccine hesitancy was also high in pregnant women who did not use any folic acid during pregnancy (OR = 2.59) and those who had not received two doses of tetanus vaccine during pregnancy or within the last 10 years (OR = 1.75). It was statistically significantly 2.14 times higher in pregnant women who used social media as a source of information about vaccines (OR = 2.14) and those who stated that they did not trust the content of vaccines (OR = 22.08) (p < 0.05).
Conclusion
The risk of pediatric vaccine hesitancy was higher in pregnant women who did not use preventive interventions during the antenatal period.