Vaccine hesitancy existed among mothers in Chandigarh: Study

Naina Mishra

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 3

‘Vaccine hesitancy’ amid the Covid vaccination programme is not a new phenomenon as such hesitancies have existed in the past as well, revealed a study carried out by a PGI doctor in the city over a period of one year.

Among 305 mothers, around 97 per cent thought childhood vaccines were important, effective and a good way to protect against diseases. However, 69 per cent women preferred their children to receive fewer co-administered vaccines and 39 per cent were concerned about the side effects.

Around 8 per cent mothers had refused a vaccine at some point, and mothers who were vaccine-hesitant had 4.63 time greater odds of vaccine refusal. Around 9 per cent had delayed a vaccine, and the delay was significantly higher among mothers who were vaccine-hesitant.

As compared to the “other caste” groups, the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes had 3.48 times greater odds of vaccine-hesitancy. Those with high school education had 0.10 times the odds of vaccine-hesitancy compared to those with less education. Finally, those having more antenatal care visits were less vaccine-hesitant. “In this study, there was a positive relationship between education and vaccine hesitancy, with more educated mothers less likely to be vaccine-hesitant,” said the study. It describes the socio-demographic patterns of vaccine-hesitancy in the city. Mothers of children less than five years old were sampled from a two-stage cluster, a systematic sampling based on anganwadi childcare centres of the UT.

The study took place between June 2017 and June 2018. It was embedded in a larger project the aim of which was to characterise measles antibody levels. Vaccine hesitancy was measured using a 10-item vaccine hesitancy scale, which was dichotomised. A total of 305 households with mothers were interviewed.

The study was conducted by Dr Joseph L Mathew, department of paediatrics, PGI, and Dr Abram L Wagner, Dr Abigail R Shotwell and Dr Matthew L Boulton, from department of epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, US.

The ongoing Covid pandemic could interplay with vaccine hesitancy, particularly as the previous literature has documented increases in vaccine-hesitancy in response to pandemics.

“Although this survey in Chandigarh found relatively muted vaccine-hesitancy in the general population, perceptions could rapidly shift with misinformation spread during the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing problems in adult vaccination in India may be particularly challenging, as most vaccination recommendations focus on children, and the seasonal influenza guidelines focus on adults with chronic disease,” the study stated.