The COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance among Jordanian Pregnant Women: A Cross-sectional Descriptive Study

Pregnant women are vulnerable to severe COVID-19 illness and complications. Worldwide, the vaccination rate among pregnant women is suboptimal. In Jordan, the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant women is not reported.

This study aims to estimate the prevalence of pregnant women who accept receiving the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, compare beliefs of accepting and non-accepting groups regarding COVID-19 vaccination, and determine predictors of accepting vaccination.

Cross-sectional descriptive design recruited 350 participants utilizing the convenience sampling method.

The results revealed that 35.4% of pregnant women accepted to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The means belief score (M=3.57, SD=0.45) was significantly higher for the accepting group than the non-accepting group (M=2.95, SD=0.47). Pregnant women who accepted COVID-19 vaccination demonstrated higher perceived benefits, higher cues to action, and lower perceived barriers compared to pregnant women who refused vaccination. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of pregnant women's acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. It was found that the model is significant [F=32.9, P< 0.01] at the level of education (β=-.128, p=0.002), economic status (β=-.526, p <0.01), trimester of pregnancy (β=.093, p=0.019), and belief mean score (β=-.332, p < 0.01).

The vast majority of pregnant women who participated in this study exhibited high perceived susceptibility and severity to COVID-19 disease. However, the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination is low due to doubts about the efficacy of the vaccine, and fears of its harmful effect on pregnant women and their unborn children. Government, policymakers, and health care system should adopt an intensive action plan to promote vaccination among pregnant women.