Contextualizing future maternal RSV vaccination acceptance and trust among pregnant and lactating women in Kenya: A...

Maternal vaccination, or vaccination in pregnancy, offers a critical opportunity to provide protection to pregnant women and simultaneously confer passive immunity to infants in the first months of life, when infections are particularly serious and their immune systems are still developing. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one such serious infectious disease for newborns, but a newly approved and recommended vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus has been designed to be given to pregnant women to protect their newborns from severe RSV disease when they are most vulnerable. While maternal vaccination has been used for tetanus, pertussis, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, vaccination in pregnancy can present unique challenges related to hesitancy and delivery, particularly in lower-resourced settings. Using data from a cross-sectional survey of 400 pregnant and lactating women in Nakuru and Mombasa Counties in Kenya, we examined perspectives related to maternal vaccination and RSV. We conducted a latent class analysis on 12 dichotomized knowledge, attitude, and belief items and then examined factors associated with class membership using a binary logistic regression. We identified two distinct archetypes among study subjects, maternal vaccine "questioners" and maternal vaccine "acceptors." There was a notable difference in perceived vaccination-enabling social norms between "questioners" and "acceptors," and participants using private health facilities were more likely to be in the "questioner" class compared to those using public facilities (aOR: 2.99, 95% CI: 1.32-6.77). This respondent-driven approach to identify groups that may require different communication strategies can help to shape efforts to target preparations for future RSV vaccine introduction in Kenya. Recognizing that "questioners" accounted for nearly one in four participants, these learnings can help to inform tailored health promotion strategies to support informed, confident maternal vaccination decision-making among providers, communities, and pregnant women and mitigate vaccination hesitancy and refusal.