Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review
Background Pregnant women, foetuses and infants are at risk of infectious disease-related complications. Maternal vaccination is a strategy developed to better protect pregnant women and their offspring against infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality. Vaccines against influenza, pertussis...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2023-02-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/2/e066367.full |
| _version_ | 1797904637204889600 |
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| author | Pierre Van Damme Larissa De Brabandere Greet Hendrickx Karolien Poels Walter Daelemans Kirsten Maertens |
| author_facet | Pierre Van Damme Larissa De Brabandere Greet Hendrickx Karolien Poels Walter Daelemans Kirsten Maertens |
| author_sort | Pierre Van Damme |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background Pregnant women, foetuses and infants are at risk of infectious disease-related complications. Maternal vaccination is a strategy developed to better protect pregnant women and their offspring against infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality. Vaccines against influenza, pertussis and recently also COVID-19 are widely recommended for pregnant women. Yet, there is still a significant amount of hesitation towards maternal vaccination policies. Furthermore, contradictory messages circulating social media impact vaccine confidence.Objectives This scoping review aims to reveal how COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination impacted vaccine confidence in pregnant and lactating women. Additionally, this review studied the role social media plays in creating opinions towards vaccination in these target groups.Eligibility criteria Articles published between 23 November 2018 and 18 July 2022 that are linked to the objectives of this review were included. Reviews, articles not focusing on the target group, abstracts, articles describing outcomes of COVID-19 infection/COVID-19 vaccination were excluded.Sources of evidence The PubMed database was searched to select articles. Search terms used were linked to pregnancy, lactation, vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 and social media.Charting methods Included articles were abstracted and synthesised by one reviewer. Verification was done by a second reviewer. Disagreements were addressed through discussion between reviewers and other researchers.Results Pregnant and lactating women are generally less likely to accept a COVID-19 vaccine compared with non-pregnant and non-nursing women. The main reason to refuse maternal vaccination is safety concerns. A positive link was detected between COVID-19 vaccine willingness and acceptance of other vaccines during pregnancy. The internet and social media are identified as important information sources for maternal vaccination.Discussion and conclusion Vaccine hesitancy in pregnant and lactating women remains an important issue, expressing the need for effective interventions to increase vaccine confidence and coverage. The role social media plays in vaccine uptake remains unclear. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T09:52:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-80ae8f6d0d68466fa8f6bb1fad1e5753 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T09:52:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-80ae8f6d0d68466fa8f6bb1fad1e57532023-02-16T22:30:08ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552023-02-0113210.1136/bmjopen-2022-066367Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping reviewPierre Van Damme0Larissa De Brabandere1Greet Hendrickx2Karolien Poels3Walter Daelemans4Kirsten Maertens5Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine & Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, BelgiumCentre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine & Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, BelgiumCentre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine & Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, BelgiumDepartment of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, BelgiumDepartment of Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Psycholinguistics Research Centre, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, BelgiumCentre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine & Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, BelgiumBackground Pregnant women, foetuses and infants are at risk of infectious disease-related complications. Maternal vaccination is a strategy developed to better protect pregnant women and their offspring against infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality. Vaccines against influenza, pertussis and recently also COVID-19 are widely recommended for pregnant women. Yet, there is still a significant amount of hesitation towards maternal vaccination policies. Furthermore, contradictory messages circulating social media impact vaccine confidence.Objectives This scoping review aims to reveal how COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination impacted vaccine confidence in pregnant and lactating women. Additionally, this review studied the role social media plays in creating opinions towards vaccination in these target groups.Eligibility criteria Articles published between 23 November 2018 and 18 July 2022 that are linked to the objectives of this review were included. Reviews, articles not focusing on the target group, abstracts, articles describing outcomes of COVID-19 infection/COVID-19 vaccination were excluded.Sources of evidence The PubMed database was searched to select articles. Search terms used were linked to pregnancy, lactation, vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 and social media.Charting methods Included articles were abstracted and synthesised by one reviewer. Verification was done by a second reviewer. Disagreements were addressed through discussion between reviewers and other researchers.Results Pregnant and lactating women are generally less likely to accept a COVID-19 vaccine compared with non-pregnant and non-nursing women. The main reason to refuse maternal vaccination is safety concerns. A positive link was detected between COVID-19 vaccine willingness and acceptance of other vaccines during pregnancy. The internet and social media are identified as important information sources for maternal vaccination.Discussion and conclusion Vaccine hesitancy in pregnant and lactating women remains an important issue, expressing the need for effective interventions to increase vaccine confidence and coverage. The role social media plays in vaccine uptake remains unclear.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/2/e066367.full |
| spellingShingle | Pierre Van Damme Larissa De Brabandere Greet Hendrickx Karolien Poels Walter Daelemans Kirsten Maertens Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review BMJ Open |
| title | Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review |
| title_full | Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review |
| title_fullStr | Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review |
| title_short | Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination: a scoping review |
| title_sort | influence of the covid 19 pandemic and social media on the behaviour of pregnant and lactating women towards vaccination a scoping review |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/2/e066367.full |
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