When pregnant women think about vaccinations, many experience vivid mental images - such as a sick baby in hospital - that have a direct link to their opinion of the vaccine and whether they ultimately have it, new research has shown.
The international study is the first known work to investigate the prevalence of vaccination-related mental imagery and to link it to both vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behaviour during pregnancy.
It was carried out with more than 400 pregnant women in Perth, Western Australia, who completed a brief survey while they were waiting for appointments in a maternity hospital.
The women were asked for their perceptions of risks relating to whooping cough, influenza, and COVID-19, and whether they experienced any mental images relating to the diseases or the vaccinations for these diseases.
Verified vaccine uptake data was subsequently obtained through official immunisation records at the end of participants' pregnancy to examine whether and when each vaccine was received, if at all.
The findings, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, showed that mental images were common and - depending on whether that mental image was a positive or negative one, and about the impacts of diseases or the vaccine itself - could be used in some cases to predict if and when the women ultimately became vaccinated during pregnancy.
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