Abstract
BackgroundThe aims of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards seasonal influenza and its vaccination among pregnant women.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was carried out among a sample of women in the second or third trimester of pregnancy in Italy.ResultsThe 64.2% of the sample knew that the influenza is more dangerous for pregnant women. Women of older age, Italian, and who had a pregnancy at high-risk were more likely to have this knowledge. This knowledge was lower among women with none, primary or secondary school education. The majority of the respondents considered the vaccine not very useful during pregnancy. Those younger, unmarried, who knew that influenza is more dangerous for pregnant women, who knew that the vaccine could protect them, who reported a higher self-rated health status, and who had received information about influenza and its vaccination were more likely to have a positive attitude toward the usefulness of influenza vaccination in pregnancy. Women with secondary school education and with more than one child revealed a lower perception. Only 9.7% had received the vaccine and 21.4% of those unvaccinated would be willing to receive it. This positive attitude was higher among women with one child, who knew that the vaccine could protect them against the influenza, and who have a positive attitude toward the usefulness of the vaccination during pregnancy.ConclusionsHealth educational programs are needed to improve the knowledge about seasonal influenza and vaccination rate in pregnancy.
Highlights
The aims of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards seasonal influenza and its vaccination among pregnant women
The mean age was 29 years, two thirds (67.5%) reported the secondary school as highest education, the large proportion was married, one third has at least one child, the average gestation was 27 weeks, the 12.9% had a high-risk pregnancy, and the mean self-rated health status value was 7.1. When it was asked about the seasonal influenza and its vaccination, 64.2% of the sample correctly answered that the influenza is more dangerous for pregnant women than for non-pregnant, 40.9% that the vaccine could protect pregnant women, one in four that vaccination was recommended during pregnancy, while only 11.2% and 7.9% of them correctly answered that it was recommended in the second or third trimester of pregnancy (Table 2)
Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that those younger, unmarried, who knew that influenza is more dangerous for pregnant women, who knew that the vaccine could protect pregnant women, who reported a higher selfrated health status, and who had received information about influenza and its vaccination were more likely to have a positive attitude toward the usefulness of influenza vaccination during pregnancy
Summary
The aims of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards seasonal influenza and its vaccination among pregnant women. Several studies have investigated the level of knowledge and the attitudes among pregnant women about seasonal influenza and its vaccination [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] and this is extremely important in order to develop strategies to improve vaccination rates. The first objective was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards seasonal influenza and its vaccination among pregnant women in Italy, and the second was to evaluate the determinants of knowledge and attitudes towards influenza vaccination
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