COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and associated factors among pregnant females

Objective: To determine frequency of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and associated factors among unvaccinated pregnant women, presenting in at our department. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Sharif Medical City Hospital, Lahore from July 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022 and included 134 pregnant females, unvaccinated for COVID-19 selected by non-probability convenient sampling technique. We used a semi-structured questionnaire. Effect modifiers like age, education, employment, family size, gestational age, and type of pregnancy were addressed through stratification. Post stratification, data were analyzed using Chi-square test on SPSS version 25 Result: The COVID vaccination hesitancy, if it was available for free, was 53.7%. The most common reasons for vaccine refusal were risk of infertility in the future (32%), unsurety of components (22%), safety issues in mother and newborn (21%), and hesitancy of family (21%). When vaccine hesitancy was compared with various sociodemographic characteristics, it was found that vaccine refusal was significantly associated with education level (p=0.000), previous covid infection (p=0.029) and gravidity (p=0.037). Conclusion: Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among pregnant females was quite significant in our study population. Women with low education level, no history of previous COVID infection and primigravidae were more hesitant to take up the vaccination.