IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i3p425-d1611982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pandemic Pregnancy Experiences and Risk Mitigation Behaviors: COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Sigourney Shaw-Churchill

    (Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Karen P. Phillips

    (Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

Abstract

Background: Pregnant people in Canada during the pandemic faced complex decision-making related to COVID-19 exposure risks and the safety of mitigation measures, including vaccines. To help inform future infectious disease–health promotion, we assessed pandemic pregnancy experiences and COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies. Methods: Respondents, pregnant at any time after January 2020 in Canada, completed an online, cross-sectional, descriptive survey from September 2021 to February 2022. Logistic regression was used to identify predictive factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake and history of infection. Results: A purposive sample of predominantly non-racialized, high socioeconomic status women ( n = 564), 58.2% primigravid during the pandemic, reported high COVID-19 vaccine uptake (87.4%). Educational attainment beyond high school predicted COVID-19 vaccination (college AOR: 2.72, CI: 1.24–5.94, p < 0.001; university AOR 4.01, CI: 1.91–8.40, p < 0.001; post-graduate university AOR: 7.31, CI: 2.84–18.81, p < 0.001). Immigrant status reduced the likelihood of COVID-19 vaccination (AOR: 0.20; CI: 0.09–0.49, p < 0.001). Racialized participants were 2.78-fold more likely to report infection (CI:1.19–6.50, p = 0.018). Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccination uptake was very high; however, vaccine hesitancy was evident among immigrants, with racialized participants more likely to report a history of COVID-19 infection. Tailored public health messaging using a health equity lens may yield more robust vaccine uptake for future infectious respiratory disease outbreaks.

Suggested Citation

  • Sigourney Shaw-Churchill & Karen P. Phillips, 2025. "Pandemic Pregnancy Experiences and Risk Mitigation Behaviors: COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake in Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(3), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:3:p:425-:d:1611982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/3/425/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/3/425/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ammara Malik & Faiza Bashir & Khalid Mahmood, 2023. "Antecedents and Consequences of Misinformation Sharing Behavior among Adults on Social Media during COVID-19," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440221, January.
    2. Tracey L. O’Sullivan & Karen P. Phillips, 2019. "From SARS to pandemic influenza: the framing of high-risk populations," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 98(1), pages 103-117, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davis Bivens, Nicola & Miller, DeMond Shondell, 2022. "Policy for temporary crisis or sustained structural change in an age of disasters, crises, and pandemics," Studia z Polityki Publicznej / Public Policy Studies, Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 9(3), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Alba Antequera & Daeria O. Lawson & Stephen G. Noorduyn & Omar Dewidar & Marc Avey & Zulfiqar A. Bhutta & Catherine Chamberlain & Holly Ellingwood & Damian Francis & Sarah Funnell & Elizabeth Ghogomu , 2021. "Improving Social Justice in COVID-19 Health Research: Interim Guidelines for Reporting Health Equity in Observational Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Sarah Syed & Tracey L. O’Sullivan & Karen P. Phillips, 2022. "Extreme Heat and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Scoping Review of the Epidemiological Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Maria Esther Irigoyen-Camacho & Maria Consuelo Velazquez-Alva & Marco Antonio Zepeda-Zepeda & Maria Fernanda Cabrer-Rosales & Irina Lazarevich & Antonio Castaño-Seiquer, 2020. "Effect of Income Level and Perception of Susceptibility and Severity of COVID-19 on Stay-at-Home Preventive Behavior in a Group of Older Adults in Mexico City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-16, October.
    5. Minjung Park & Sangmi Chai, 2024. "What Makes Fake News Appeal to You? Empirical Evidence from the Tweets Related to COVID-19 Vaccines," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, July.
    6. Sarah King & Amy McFarland & Jody Vogelzang, 2022. "Food sovereignty and sustainability mid-pandemic: how Michigan’s experience of Covid-19 highlights chasms in the food system," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 827-838, June.
    7. Xiao Gu & Bojan Obrenovic & Wei Fu, 2023. "Empirical Study on Social Media Exposure and Fear as Drivers of Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    8. Eric J. Crighton & Erica Phipps & Graeme N. Smith & Rukhsana Ahmed & Jocelynn L. Cook & Jeffrey R. Masuda & Alvaro R. Osornio-Vargas & Margaret Sanborn & Lesley J. Brennan & Karen P. Phillips & on beh, 2024. "Environmental Health Attitudes, Practices, and Educational Preferences: A National Survey of Reproductive-Aged Women in Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(11), pages 1-17, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:3:p:425-:d:1611982. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.