Boston, MA – Most pregnant women and mothers of children under 18 say they would get the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccinate their children, according to a study conducted by researchers at the School Harvard Public Health TH Chan. The research showed that vaccine uptake was highest in India, the Philippines, and all countries sampled in Latin America, and was lowest in Russia, USA and Australia.
The results will be published online on March 1, 2021 in the European Journal of Epidemiology.
Vaccines for COVID-19 are being distributed worldwide, but so far researchers have had little data on global COVID-19 uptake. To assess the position of pregnant women and mothers wanting to vaccinate themselves and their children, a team led by Julia Wu of Harvard Chan School, a research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and a leading figure of the Human Immunomics Initiative, an online study administered by the Pregistry website between late October and mid-November 2020.
Nearly 18,000 women in 16 countries answered questions about the safe and free COVID-19 hypothetical vaccine with 90% efficacy. Overall, 52% of pregnant women and 73% of non-pregnant women said they would receive that vaccine, and 69% of women surveyed said they would be vaccinated their children.
Vaccine uptake varies by country. Adoption in India, the Philippines, and Latin American countries was over 60% among pregnant women and over 78% among non-pregnant women alone; more than 75% of mothers said they would vaccinate their children. Vaccination uptake in the US and Russia was lower (under 45% among pregnant women and under 56% among non-pregnant women alone) and similar in countries with very few COVID- cases. 19, such as Australia and New Zealand. This phenomenon in the U.S. and Russia could be due to COVID-19 rejection, according to the researchers.
Wu and her team asked survey participants about various topics related to vaccines and COVID-19. The strongest predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among the women surveyed included confidence in the safety or efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, concerns about COVID-19, belief in the importance of vaccines to their own country, compliance with mask instructions, trust in public health. agencies and health sciences, as well as opinions on routine vaccines. Pregnant women were concerned about exposing the developing baby to possible harmful side effects, vaccine uptake for political reasons, and lack of safety data. is effective in pregnant women.
“Our study confirmed the diversity of COVID-19 vaccines,” said Julia Wu, lead author of the paper. “The perceived risk from COVID-19, the level of trust in public health organizations, and current pre-COVID 19 vaccine perceptions play key roles in shaping uptake and confidence. Vaccination campaigns should be designed to reduce these specific concerns. “
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Other Harvard Chan School researchers include Malia Skjefte, Michelle Ngirbabul, Oluwasefunmi Akeju, Daniel Escudero, and Sonia Hernandez-Diaz.
This research was funded by the Human Immunomics Initiative at Harvard Chan School of Pregistry, LLC and co-sponsored by COVID Collaborative.
“COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women and mothers of young children: Study results in 16 countries,” Malia Skjefte, Michelle Ngirbabul, Oluwasefunmi Akeju, Daniel Escudero, Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, Diego Wyszynski, Julia W. Wu, European Journal of Epidemiology, online March 1, 2021, doi: 10.1007 / s10654-021-00728-6
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