COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the vaccines’ acceptance level and to find the factors influencing pregnant women’s vaccination decisions, with the goal of assisting in the development of interventions and promoting more research in this area. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and PubMed. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Studies providing any kind of quantitative assessment of overall COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among pregnant women in any country or region across the globe. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: The pooled prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among pregnant women was calculated using the random-effects model. Subgroup (sensitivity) analysis was performed to determine the overall COVID-19 vaccine acceptance level to understand the sources of substantial heterogeneity. RESULTS: Out of the 375 studies identified, 17 studies from four continents assessing 25 147 participants (pregnant women) were included in this study. Among the participants, only 49% (95% CI 42% to 56%, p<0.001) had COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. High-income countries (47%; 95% CI 38% to 55%, p<0.001), participants with fewer than 12 years of education (38%; 95% CI 19% to 58%, p<0.001) and multiparous women (48%; 95% CI 31% to 66%, p<0.001) had lower COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Overall heterogeneity was high (I(2) ≥98%), and publication bias was present (p<0.001). A very weak positive correlation between COVID-19 knowledge and COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was observed (r=0.164; 95% CI −0.946 to 0.972; p=0.8359). CONCLUSION: Overall, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among pregnant women was low across the studies and considerably low among some specific subgroups of participants. These research findings have implications for the development of effective interventions that could increase the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance level among pregnant women to attain herd immunity. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021277754.