Vaccination Education And Rates In Diabetic Patients

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases on a global scale. Vaccination is important due to increased susceptibility to infectious diseases in the clinical process. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of diabetic patients against influenza, pneumococcal, hepatitis B and zoster vaccines and to determine the vaccination rates in patients.Materials and Methods: Three hundred and ten diabetic patients who applied to Balikesir University Medical School Hospital were evaluated by face-to-face interview method, and a predefined vaccine awareness questionnaire was applied to the patients. The attitudes of the patients against influenza, pneumococcal, hepatitis B and zoster vaccines, vaccination applications and vaccination education status were recorded. The data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 22.0).Results: Of the 310 patients included in the study, 118 (38.1%) were males; 192(61.9%) were females. Mean age was 59.3 (+/- 11.3) years in all patients; 59.2 (+/- 12.8) in males and 59.3 (+/- 10.6) in females, and no statistically significant difference was found between age distributions by sex (p= 0.972). When whether or not they got educated on vaccination following their diagnosis with diabetes mellitus, it was determined that 44 (14.2%) patients got educated and 266 (85.8%) patients did not get any education on this subject. In addition, influenza, pneumococcal, hepatitis B and zoster vaccination rates were observed as 28.4%, 4.8%, 5.5%, 1.2% respectively in diabetes patients.Conclusion: Today, vaccination education level of diabetic patients is not sufficient, and vaccination rates are low. Improving patient education in order to increase vaccine protection in patients and determining treatment targets for age may be effective.