Knowledge levels and attitudes of pregnant women about recommended vaccines during pregnancy - the case of Samsun province

ABSTRACT Objective: The application of gestational vaccines, which have been proven to protect against possible morbidity and mortality for the pregnant woman, fetus and baby by many studies, is not at the desired level. This study aimed to evaluate the vaccination status of pregnant women applying to Samsun University Training and Research Hospital Gynecology Outpatient Clinics and the factors affecting this. Materials and Methods: Our research is a cross-sectional descriptive study and was conducted with 380 pregnant women who applied to Samsun University Training and Research Hospital Gynecology Polyclinics between April 1, 2024 and June 31, 2024. Our survey, which consists of 53 questions prepared by us and applied to a pilot group, was administered to the participants face to face. The collected data were analyzed with the SPSS 25.0 package program. p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: In our study, which included 380 pregnant women, the average age of the participants was found to be 28.67±5.34. In our research, 94.2% of the pregnant women did not receive any vaccinations for preparation before pregnancy, 83.2% received the tetanus vaccine, 1.6% received the hepatitis B vaccine, 1.1% received the flu vaccine, 0.5% received the flu vaccine during their current pregnancies. It was observed that 100,000 people had received whooping cough vaccine and 0.3% had received COVID-19 vaccine. 16.6% of pregnant women had not received any vaccinations during their current pregnancy. In our research, it was determined that 34.0% of the pregnant women were their first pregnancy. In other participants' previous pregnancies, 58% had received a tetanus vaccine, 4.5% had a COVID-19 vaccine, 1.8% had a hepatitis B vaccine, and 0.5% had a flu vaccine. 58.9% of the participants stated that they knew why the tetanus vaccine was given, but 10.3% knew why the whooping cough vaccine was given, 78.4% knew why the influenza vaccine was given, and 93.2% knew why the COVID-19 vaccine was given. However, while 71.6% found the COVID-19 vaccine harmful during pregnancy, 67.6% did not find the tetanus vaccine harmful. In our study, tetanus vaccination was recommended to 61.1% of pregnant women by nurses. However, it was observed that 97.9%, 91.6% and 97.1% of pregnant women did not receive vaccination recommendations for pertussis vaccine, influenza vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. In our research, it was seen that when the doctor recommended vaccination, 64.1% of pregnant women would accept the tetanus vaccine, 72.2% would accept the whooping cough vaccine, 63.3% would accept the influenza vaccine and 21.9% would accept the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: As a result of our research, pregnant women's status of receiving a tetanus vaccine and their knowledge about the vaccine were found to be higher than other vaccines recommended during pregnancy. Acceptance rates for pertussis, influenza and COVID-19 vaccines were found to be very low, and this was significantly affected by not receiving vaccination recommendations from healthcare providers. It is thought that applying the strategies applied to the tetanus vaccine to other vaccines recommended during pregnancy will increase the vaccine acceptance rate.