Knowledge attitude and practice toward pertussis vaccination during pregnancy among pregnant and postpartum Italian women.
In Italy, no specific recommendation toward maternal pertussis immunization during pregnancy has been issued. However, vaccination during pregnancy will be likely integrated in the Italian immunization program in the future. In order to identify barriers to achieving a sufficient vaccination coverage during pregnancy, we investigated knowledge, attitude and practice toward pertussis vaccination during pregnancy through a web-based survey. A total of 343 Italian pregnant women (N = 164) and women in the postpartum period (N = 183) completed the online questionnaire. More than a half of the study population was uncertain regarding the benefits of the vaccination during pregnancy. Only 1.7% of women in the postpartum had received the vaccination during pregnancy, and 21% of pregnant women declared the intention to be vaccinated in pregnancy. Only 34% would accept the vaccination in the current or in a future pregnancy, if recommended by a physician, and a half would remain uncertain. Perceiving the vaccine as harmful for the fetus' development is associated to a decreased willingness to be vaccinated if recommended by a HCP, both in pregnant women (OR 0.25 p = 0.010 95% CI 0.09-0.72) and in women in the postpartum period (OR 0.32 p =  0.006 95% CI 0.15-0.72). Our study suggests that the vaccination recommendation by physicians might not be sufficient to adequately raise vaccination coverage against pertussis among Italian pregnant women. A combination of educational interventions and tailored communi-cation campaigns could be implemented to promote maternal immunization.
['Agricola|Eleonora|E|', 'Gesualdo|Francesco|F|', 'Alimenti|Lia|L|', 'Pandolfi|Elisabetta|E|', 'Carloni|Emanuela|E|', "D'Ambrosio|Angelo|A|", 'Russo|Luisa|L|', 'Campagna|Ilaria|I|', 'Ferretti|Beatrice|B|', 'Tozzi|Alberto E|AE|']
D000328:Adult D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D022681:Diphtheria-Tetanus-acellular Pertussis Vaccines D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious D005260:Female D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice D006801:Humans D007558:Italy D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care D049590:Postpartum Period D011247:Pregnancy D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious D014917:Whooping Cough
Pertussis vaccination pregnancy vaccines in pregnancy maternal immunization Maternal-Child Health Services Tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine vaccine attitudes vaccines obstetrics