Knowledge, attitudes and practices about vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccinations of children among pregnant women in Greece.

Vaccine hesitancy has been recognized by the World Health Organization as one of ten threats to public health globally in 2019. Pregnant women constitute an extremely important group for the study of knowledge and attitudes towards pediatric vaccinations. This is a cross-sectional survey conducted in two maternity hospitals in Athens. A standardized questionnaire was used. A total of 814 pregnant women with a mean age of 33.1 years and a mean gestational age of 24.4 weeks were studied. Overall, 717 (89%) of 804 pregnant women reported that they intend to vaccinate their baby in accordance with the National Vaccination Program, 7 (1%) that they do not, while 80 (10%) reported that they have not decided yet. The women provided a mean of 11.4 correct replies out of 14 questions about vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccines (mean knowledge score: 81.5%). A pediatrician has been recognized as the source for information about vaccines in most cases (611/809, 75.5%), while in 215 (26.6%) the internet was also used. Overall, pregnant women trusted physicians about information for vaccines ("very much trusted" in 55.9% and "quite trusted" in 40% of cases). Lastly, 642 (81%) women agreed with the statement "vaccinations should be mandatory for school entry" while 70 (9%) women agreed with the statement "parents should have the right to refuse their children vaccinations". A multivariate analysis found that a gestational age of ≤20 weeks (OR = 2.33, CIs: 1.27-4.28, p-value = 0.006), having another child (OR = 4.44, CIs: 2.30-8.58, p-value < 0.001), a history of influenza vaccination (OR = 2.54, CIs = 1.37-4.71, p-value = 0.003), and a higher knowledge score about vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccines (OR = 1.33, CIs: 1.23-1.45, p-value < 0.001) were significantly associated with an increased probability to get their child vaccinated in accordance with the National Vaccination Program.

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Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.