COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women has remained stagnant for months, despite most discussing the vaccine with their provider, according to data Ovia Health collects on its users.
Ovia Health, a family benefits solution, conducts monthly surveys of 4,500 users across each of its various apps on their attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine.
Overall, the number of expecting mothers unlikely or somewhat unlikely to get the vaccine has stayed about the same from May through September, at approximately 75%, according to company data shared with Fierce Healthcare. That’s despite the vaccine being recommended by federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
In September, most Ovia Pregnancy users (78%) surveyed said their external provider had discussed the vaccine with them.
When looking at a racial breakdown of the data, the rate of those unlikely overall to get vaccinated among white respondents did not notably change over the months, hovering at approximately 75%. Black respondents’ hesitancy shrunk from 100% unlikely overall in May to 70% in September.
“We're not observing a high disparity between races, potentially due to the fear of the vaccine affecting fertility and reproductive health,” the company said, along with the problem of getting information from friends, family or social media rather than health professionals. “Hesitancy rates are slowly waning, but still concerningly high.”
By contrast, most new mothers (60%) using Ovia’s Parenting app have reported planning to vaccinate their children, the company said.
The latest data show racial gaps in vaccination rates on a national level have narrowed, particularly among Hispanic and Black communities. White people still account for the largest share of those unvaccinated.
Ovia has been distributing information on the safety of the vaccines to its customers to “restore the power to the actual inpatient, encouraging them to make decisions for themselves with their care provider,” Gina Nebesar, co-founder and chief product officer at Ovia Health, told Fierce Healthcare.
In preparation for COVID-19 vaccine approvals, Ovia crafted and released COVID-19 vaccine informational guides this summer tailored specifically to each of its solutions (Ovia Fertility, Pregnancy and Parenting). Together, the guides have reached 1.2 million users and have more than twice the engagement rate of other articles available through Ovia, according to the company. Additionally, the vast majority of users (95%) feel the company is a trustworthy source.
“Though women only see their healthcare provider periodically, they're logging into Ovia every day, which gives us immense visibility and opportunity to engage with these women where they are at,” Nebesar said. “We anticipated hesitancy in our population and proactively designed this guide to be a seamless part of the Ovia experience to continue to destigmatize it and give women the opportunity to review the data and facts on their own time, within a solution they use daily and trust deeply.”
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While Ovia hasn’t seen a significant fluctuation in its number of members over the past year, it has observed changes in behavior across its offerings.
As more care visits moved online, Ovia saw an uptick in the number of requests for coaching services as well as how much users were tracking their own health at home, Nebesar explained. There was also a rise in interventions delivered based on those behaviors. During the pandemic, Ovia introduced features like hotline resources for reporting relationship abuse.
“People were taking more control of their health,” Nebesar said, and leaning more on technology for mental health support. There was a “layer of anxiety on top of every single message we received,” she added.