Knowledge and health beliefs of reproductive-age women in Alexandria about tetanus toxoid immunization

BACKGROUND: Maternal neonatal tetanus is a substantial public health problem in many developing countries. In 2017, nearly, 30,848 newborns died of neonatal tetanus; thus, high immunization coverage remains a necessity. This study aims to assess knowledge and health beliefs of reproductive-age women in Alexandria about tetanus toxoid immunization. METHODS: A cross-section survey of 700 females attending health offices in Alexandria was done using an interview questionnaire to collect data regarding women’s knowledge and beliefs about tetanus toxoid vaccine (TTV) and maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT). Nine health offices were selected using multi-stage random sampling. RESULTS: Most of studied women (83.6%) had poor knowledge of MNT and TTV. The highest percentage of women had low perception of susceptibility to MNT (48.0%), moderate perception of severity of MNT (57.4%) and barriers to TTV (58.9%), high perception of benefits of TTV (86.6%), and high self-efficacy in taking the vaccine (76.2%). Less than one-third of the sampled women (27.7%) were immune by (TT2+). Logistic regression models showed that the place of antenatal care, level of knowledge, perceived barriers, and socio-economic level were significant predictors of immunity status (p = 0.008, p = 0.032, p = 0.011, and p = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Women lacked information about MNT/TTV and may even have been discouraged by their private obstetricians from taking the vaccine. Perceived barriers to receiving tetanus toxoid vaccination were shown to be an important predictor of immunization behavior