BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is still a problem in our country for the past 2 years. The pandemic severely affected the immunocompromised and high-risk group of patients, such as the pregnant and lactating women. Research shows that this group has higher risk of being critically ill as well as dying. However, there are only a few studies on how COVID-19 vaccine is perceived among this vulnerable group. Hence, this study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices on COVID-19 vaccine among high-risk pregnant and lactating women. Moreover, the results will be used in crafting health policies that affect this specific group of patients.

METHODOLOGY

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on high-risk pregnant and lactating women who sought antenatal consults at the High-Risk Clinic in a tertiary training hospital for a 1-month period. Participants were asked to answer a validated questionnaire assessing their knowledge, attitudes, and practices on COVID-19 vaccine. They were also asked about their sociodemographic characteristics, co-morbidities, history of COVID-19 infection, and vaccination status, as well as the source of their information regarding the vaccine. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize in this study. In addition, frequency and proportion were used for nominal variables, median and range for ordinal variables, and mean and standard deviation for interval or ratio variables. MINITAB 20 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 323 high-risk pregnant and lactating women were enrolled in the study with an average age of 29 years old. Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants showed that they were high-school graduate, single, mostly financially disadvantaged, and resides in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon area. The majority have diabetes mellitus as their co-morbidity, were not infected with COVID-19 and had already been vaccinated. The significant source of information of vaccine information was mainly from social media. The study presented that more than 90% were aware that COVID-19 vaccine was recommended by professional organizations, however, only 55%–59% only agree that it is safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The result also conveyed a positive attitude toward vaccination as the pregnancy progresses, as well as during lactation. As to practices, 80% of the participants were told by their health care providers to get vaccinated and 72% of them reported vaccine side effects. Furthermore, 58% of the participants would recommend vaccination during pregnancy while only 54% will recommend it while breastfeeding.

CONCLUSION

Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of COVID-19 vaccine among high-risk pregnant and lactating women gave an understanding on how a vulnerable population perceives vaccination. In general, this research study presented high percentage COVID-19 vaccine awareness and acceptance; however, it can also be seen that there is a mixed perception regarding vaccine safety during pregnancy and lactation. Strategies to improve health literacy which are evidenced based that can be carried out by a health care provider could be established to achieve maximum vaccination coverage among high-risk group of patients.

Human ; Female ; Coronavirus ; Covid-19 ; Vaccines ; Pandemics