Abstract:
Introduction: COVID-19 mainly spreads between people when an infected person is in close contact with another person. After a year food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 11, 2020, to prevent COVID-19 and initial doses were recommended for targeted priority group. Even though, a high level of public acceptance and coverage is needed to reduce the burden of the pandemic quickly and efficiently; there is a lack of evidence on acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among pregnant women. Objective: To assess COVID-19 Vaccine acceptance and its determinants among pregnant mothers who attend antenatal care in referral hospitals of Amhara regional state in 2022 . Method: Institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in referral hospitals of Amhara regional state from April15-May15, 2022. Five hundred twentyfive participants were recruited by using a multistage systematic random sampling technique. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews by using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were computed to identify factors associated with the outcome variable. Adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was computed to determine the level of significance. Results: The magnitude of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine found to be 71.4%with (95% CI; 67.6-75.2).participants whose gestation was on 2nd trimester (AOR: 4.102; 95% CI: 1.867-9.014) and on 3rd trimester (AOR: 3.4901; 95% CI: 1.584-7.869) were significantly associated with outcome variable. Participants who had chronic medical illness (AOR: 4.184; 95% CI: 1.633-10.720) also significantly associated with outcome variable. Respondents who had good knowledge (AOR: 1.758; 95% CI: 1.114-2.775) and positive attitude (AOR: 1.871; 95% CI: 1.214-2.884) were significantly associated with the outcome variable. Conclusion and Recommendation: More than two-thirds of the participants accepted COVID-19 vaccine. According to this study, being on the 2nd and 3rd-trimester pregnancy, having chronic medical illness, having good knowledge on COVID-19 and positive attitude on COVID-19 vaccine were determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The government of Ethiopia has to work on enhancing the knowledge of pregnant mothers about COVID-19 vaccine before starting vaccination.
