Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant Peruvian women: attitudes and associated factors

ABSTRACT

Now that COVID-19 vaccines are available for pregnant women, it is important to know their perception and intention to be vaccinated. The objective was to determine the attitude of pregnant women towards vaccination against COVID-19 in Peru and the factors associated with it. This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in the 24 Peruvian departments during the months of December 2020 and January 2021. Fifty percent of the respondents had not yet decided whether they would be vaccinated, 36% said they would be vaccinated, 8% said they would not be vaccinated under any circumstances, and 6% would only be vaccinated if they were forced to do so. In the multivariate analysis, it was found that they would not be vaccinated because they did not trust the health system (p-value=0.002;more pregnant women did not trust the health sector), on the other hand, in the reasons why they would be vaccinated, it was found that this vaccination would improve the health of their family or loved ones (p-value=0.005;fewer pregnant women would be vaccinated for this reason). It is concluded that the percentage of pregnant women who would get vaccinated is low, being the main reason for the improvement of the health of your family, while distrust in the health system, lack of knowledge of the development of vaccines and not considering themselves a population at risk were the main factors associated with resistance to vaccination.