Evaluation of Mothers' COVID-19 Fear Situations and Attitudes to COVID-19 Vaccine

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate mothers' fears of COVID-19 and their attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine. Material and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 305 mothers with children aged 0-14 years in the family health centre in Zonguldak city centre between 01.01.2022 and 01.05.2022. Personal Information Form, COVID-19 fear scale (CFS) and Ghana vaccine attitudes scale (GVAS) were used to collect data. Results: In this study, 3.6% of the mothers did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Mothers' fear of COVID-19 was moderate and their hesitancy to get vaccinated was low. There was no relationship between the mothers' fear of COVID-19 and their attitudes towards the vaccine (p= 0.824). Fear of COVID-19 increases as mothers' negative attitudes towards vaccine benefits (r= -0.160, p< 0.001) and past vaccination experiences (r= 0.796, p< 0.001) increase. Mothers (20.32 +/- 3.22) who were undecided about being vaccinated against COVID-19 had more negative attitudes towards vaccination than those who thought that vaccination should be mandatory (16.59 +/- 3.27) (p< 0.001). Those who thought that the side effects of COVID-19 affected the vaccine decision (19.43 +/- 4.07) had a more negative attitude towards the vaccine than those who thought that they did not (17.42 +/- 3.81) (p< 0.001). Conclusion: It was found that the COVID-19 vaccination rates of the mothers were quite high, they had a moderate fear of COVID-19 and their hesitations towards the COVID-19 vaccine were low. It is thought that past experiences of mothers regarding COVID-19 increase the tendency to get vaccinated.