Assessment of pneumococcal and influenza vaccine awareness of diabetic patients who admitted to Mugla Training and Research Hospital Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic

Objective: In our study, we aimed to reveal the awareness of pneumococcal and influenza vaccines, vaccination rates, sources of information about vaccines, and the reasons why they were not vaccinated in patients diagnosed with diabetes. Materials and Methods: In our study, a questionnaire was applied to 274 participants diagnosed with diabetes mellitus who applied to the Muğla Training and Research Hospital Internal Medicine outpatient clinic between March 1, 2021 and April 1, 2021. Results: 44.5% of the participants were female, 55.5% were male and the mean age was 59.08 ±13.3. Of the patients participating in the study, the rate of those who had pneumococcal vaccine was 45.6% and the rate of those who had flu vaccine was 38.3%. When the patients were asked about the sources of information that suggested that they should be vaccinated, 53.3% responded as doctors for influenza vaccine, 37.1% as televisions, 76.8% as doctors for pneumococcal vaccine and 14.4% as televisions. When the physician branch was asked to the patients whose source of information was the physician, 92.9% responded as family medicine for the flu vaccine and 86.4% responded as family medicine for the pneumococcal vaccine, respectively. When the reasons for not getting the flu vaccine were questioned, 33.7% of the patients answered that they did not direct me to get the vaccine, 13.6% did not know about the flu vaccine, 32.5% did not think it was necessary. When the reasons for not getting pneumococcal vaccination were questioned, 43.6% of the patients answered that they did not direct me to get pneumococcal vaccination, 16.1% did not know about pneumococcal vaccination, 26.8% did not think it was necessary. Conclusion: The results of our study on influenza and pneumococcal vaccine awareness in diabetic patients were found to be lower than the desired targets. We found that recommending vaccines in particular will increase vaccine awareness and vaccination rate. Keywords: Vaccine, pneumococcal, influenza, diabetes mellitus, awareness