RESEARCH ARTICLE
The COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance among Jordanian Pregnant Women: A Cross-sectional Descriptive Study
Salwa AbuAlrub1, *, Hind B. AlShekh2, Salam Bani Hani3, Muhammed Abu Baker4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 17
E-location ID: e187443462306260
Publisher ID: e187443462306260
DOI: 10.2174/18744346-v17-e20230711-2023-61
Article History:
Received Date: 22/04/2023Revision Received Date: 04/06/2023
Acceptance Date: 06/06/2023
Electronic publication date: 18/09/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
Pregnant women are vulnerable to severe COVID-19 illness and complications. Worldwide, the vaccination rate among pregnant women is suboptimal. In Jordan, the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant women is not reported.
Objectives:
This study aims to estimate the prevalence of pregnant women who accept receiving the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, compare beliefs of accepting and non-accepting groups regarding COVID-19 vaccination, and determine predictors of accepting vaccination.
Materials and Methods:
Cross-sectional descriptive design recruited 350 participants utilizing the convenience sampling method.
Results:
The results revealed that 35.4% of pregnant women accepted to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The means belief score (M=3.57, SD=0.45) was significantly higher for the accepting group than the non-accepting group (M=2.95, SD=0.47). Pregnant women who accepted COVID-19 vaccination demonstrated higher perceived benefits, higher cues to action, and lower perceived barriers compared to pregnant women who refused vaccination. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of pregnant women's acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. It was found that the model is significant [F=32.9, P< 0.01] at the level of education (β=-.128, p=0.002), economic status (β=-.526, p <0.01), trimester of pregnancy (β=.093, p=0.019), and belief mean score (β=-.332, p < 0.01).
Conclusion:
The vast majority of pregnant women who participated in this study exhibited high perceived susceptibility and severity to COVID-19 disease. However, the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination is low due to doubts about the efficacy of the vaccine, and fears of its harmful effect on pregnant women and their unborn children. Government, policymakers, and health care system should adopt an intensive action plan to promote vaccination among pregnant women.
