The Alarming Inadequacy of Adult Vaccination—Vaccination Rates in Diabetic Patients

Aim: DM is a disease that causes immune incompetence due to various reasons. Therefore, the risk of infectious disease and the risk of complications, morbidity and mortality related to infectious disease in diabetic patients are increased compared to healthy adults. Patients with DM are advised to get vaccinated for

influenza once every year, tetanus every 10 years, hepatitis B if they did not complete their routine vaccinations and pneumococcus for once. Researches reveal the lack of adult vaccination awareness, even in high risk group of patients. This study is designed to determine the adult vaccination rates (VR) in diabetic patients who are in routine follow-up in our outpatient diabetes clinic.

Methods and Findings: Diabetic patients that applied to Istanbul Medeniyet University Goztepe Training and Research Hospital Diabetes Outpatient Clinic between January and July 2017 were included in the study. Patients were selected by simple random sampling and their demographic data were recorded. Patients were asked if they were vaccinated for influenza in last year, tetanus in last 10 years, hepatitis B and pneumococcus. In the 846 (535 female, 311 male) type 2 DM patients that were included in the study, the average age was 58.7(32-86) and the average years with diabetes was 11,2(1-50). VR were 17.6% (n=149) for influenza, 18.6% (n=157) for tetanus, 8.6% (n=73) for hepatitis B and 5.4% (n=46) for pneumococcus.

Results and Discussion: This study demonstrates that adult VR in our diabetic patients are inadequate. Adult vaccination policy programs recommend the aim of 90% influenza and 60% pneumococcus VR. Even though our population consists of diabetes patients with seemingly high consciousness levels, attending their regular doctor appointments, their VR are far below the targeted rates. The fact that unvaccination rates are exceeding 80% for influenza and 90% for pneumococcus points out to the significance of increasing adult VR as a health issue of priority and urgency in diabetic patients.