Knowledge attitude and practice toward pertussis vaccination during pregnancy among pregnant and postpartum Italian women

Abstract

In Italy, no specific recommendation toward maternal pertussis immunization during pregnancy has been issued. However, vaccination during pregnancy will be likely integrated in the Italian immunization program in the future. In order to identify barriers to achieving a sufficient vaccination coverage during pregnancy, we investigated knowledge, attitude and practice toward pertussis vaccination during pregnancy through a web-based survey. A total of 343 Italian pregnant women (N = 164) and women in the postpartum period (N = 183) completed the online questionnaire. More than a half of the study population was uncertain regarding the benefits of the vaccination during pregnancy. Only 1.7% of women in the postpartum had received the vaccination during pregnancy, and 21% of pregnant women declared the intention to be vaccinated in pregnancy. Only 34% would accept the vaccination in the current or in a future pregnancy, if recommended by a physician, and a half would remain uncertain. Perceiving the vaccine as harmful for the fetus' development is associated to a decreased willingness to be vaccinated if recommended by a HCP, both in pregnant women (OR 0.25 p = 0.010 95% CI 0.09-0.72) and in women in the postpartum period (OR 0.32 p = 0.006 95% CI 0.15-0.72). Our study suggests that the vaccination recommendation by physicians might not be sufficient to adequately raise vaccination coverage against pertussis among Italian pregnant women. A combination of educational interventions and tailored communi-cation campaigns could be implemented to promote maternal immunization.

Attitudes towards compulsory vaccination in Italy: Results from the NAVIDAD multicentre study

“…Interestingly, our data are consistent with the results of similar studies published in other international peer reviewed journals in the current literature. In fact, a broad spectrum of results can be found [39,40]. In addition, as shown in the results of our research, neither educational level nor employment appear to affect the attitudes towards mandatory vaccination.…”

Impact Assessment of an Education Course on Vaccinations in a Population of Pregnant Women

“…Indeed, regarding the taboo against vaccines in pregnancy, De Martino affirms that the recommendations of healthcare providers are the keystone of vaccination uptake [ 20 ]. Moreover, a study conducted in 2016 revealed that increasing vaccination coverage against pertussis among pregnant women depends not only on recommendation by physicians, but also on educational interventions and campaigns to promote maternal immunization [ 21 ]. Indeed, in line with the literature data, the percentage of pregnant women in our study who were positively oriented toward vaccination increased after the educational intervention.…”

Exploring patients' awareness and healthcare professionals' knowledge and attitude to pertussis and influenza vaccination during the antenatal periods in Cavan Monaghan general hospital

“…This also was similar in several studies that looked at uptake of influenza vaccination in pregnancy. [5][6][7][8][9] The Pearson's r correlation between having heard of influenza vaccine and receiving vaccine is -0.239 and the correlation between knowing flu vaccine is safe and receiving flu vaccine is 0.556. This means that there is a strong relationship between knowing that flu vaccine is safe and receiving flu vaccine.…”

“…Numerous studies have been done to ascertain healthcare professional's knowledge and attitude to influenza or pertussis vaccination. [4][5][6][7][8][9] However, none has been done to explore both patients awareness and healthcare workers knowledge attitude and practice to both influenza and pertussis vaccination during the antenatal period working in the same setting.…”