Vaccination awareness of type 2 diabetes patients

The present study was conducted as a descriptive study with 200 patients who were admitted to the endocrinology outpatient clinic of a university hospital and received treatment at the endocrinology department in order to evaluate vaccination awareness of type 2 diabetes patients. Prior to the study, the required permission was obtained. Data were collected via a questionnaire form. Chi-squared test was used in data analysis. It was found that 64.5% of patients were between the age of 54-71, that 51% of them were female, that 51.5% were illiterate, that 82% of them were unemployed, and that 52% of patients had a chronic disease other than diabetes. The time of diagnosis varied between 61-120 months for 31.5% of patients and 39.5% of them were administered oral antidiabetics and insulin in their diabetes treatment while 69.5% did not come to their routine checks regularly and only 27.5% of them visited their diabetes nurse regularly. It was also noted that 60% of patients did not know about the necessity for vaccination, that %98 of them did not know about their immunization schedule while 96.5% did not know about adult immunization schedule, and that 95.5% of them did not know about the vaccines individuals with type 2 diabetes needed. In addition, vaccines not recommended for these patients are as follows: pneumococcal vaccine for 91.5%, flu vaccine for 82.5%, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (TDAP) vaccine for 99.5%, hepatitis B vaccine for 95.5% and hepatitis A and human papilloma virus (HPV) for all of them. It was found that 12.5% of patients had pneumococcal vaccine, that 14.5% of them had flu vaccine, that 35.5% had TDAP vaccine, that 18% had hepatitis B vaccine. However, it was found out that 98% of them did not have hepatitis A vaccine while none of them had herpes zoster and HPV vaccines. Moreover, it was concluded that factors such as age, education level, gender, visiting their diabetes nurse, coming to routine checks, having information on the disease, and knowing about the necessity for vaccination had a positive impact on vaccination awareness. In conclusion, it was observed that diabetes patients did not have enough vaccination awareness and that their vaccination rate was low. Accordingly, we suggest that patients be provided information on the importance of vaccination in order to raise awareness among them.