Awareness of Vaccination against Respiratory Tract Diseases, Including Pneumonia, Influenza, and COVID-19 in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of severe acute respiratory infections, and vaccination is their life-saving option. This study aimed to investigate the interest and knowledge of patients about influenza, pneumonia, and COVID-19(coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines. Materials. We handed out a questionnaire to patients with diabetes who were admitted to the endocrinology clinic between April and August 2021. The questionnaire collected information on demographic data, knowledge about respiratory tract disease vaccines, and hesitancy about vaccines. Results. Four hundred twenty-four patients (female = 256, male = 168) enrolled in the study. In this study, 148 (34.9%) participants were vaccinated against pneumonia, 155 (36.6%) against flu, and 312 (73.6%) against COVID-19. In addition, antivaccination sentiment was recorded in 8.7% of patients with diabetes. We found that participants in the study primarily rely on doctors as the source of information about vaccines (doctor (46.7%), nurse (1.2%), television (8.7%), friend/neighbour (8.7%), and others (2.6%)). The rate of vaccination was statistically higher than the presence of comorbid diseases. Conclusions. We examined the vaccine awareness of patients with diabetes and investigated factors affecting it. İt was determined that vaccination awareness is affected by many factors, especially comorbid diseases and educational status. The study showed that patients primarily relied on doctors as their source of information for vaccination. Doctor-centered vaccination promotion programmes can increase the rate of vaccination.

Prevalence and Outcomes of Diabetes Among Covid-19 Patients in Duhok Covid-19 Health Facilities: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In contrast, other studies reported lower vaccination rates (4.8%) [31]. Overall, the rate in our study was unsatisfactory compared to studies from Saudi Arabia (84.8 %) [11], Turkey (73.6%) [32], and Iran (62.7%) [6]. This pointed to the lack of direct evidence that vaccinations benefit patients with diabetes, concerns about the vaccination's composition, and side effects that resulted in resistance to vaccine uptake among DM patients [31].…”

Charcterization of COVID-19 hospitalized adult patients, vaccinated vs non-vaccinated in Duhok province

“…We investigated 300 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with a variety of demographic, clinical, and laboratory profiles. In the current study, the vaccination coverage was 9.33%, which was low in comparison to studies from Iran, 14 Turkey, 15 Saudi Arabia, 16 and India. 17 On the contrary, only few studies reported a lower vaccination coverage for e.g.…”

Adherence to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in diabetes mellitus patients in Saudi Arabia: A multicenter retrospective study

“…On the contrary, multiple previous studies have reported a significant positive correlation between higher educational levels and increased vaccination rates. For instance, a study conducted in Turkey aimed at determining vaccine awareness among patients with DM found a significant positive correlation between influenza vaccine acceptance and education level, suggesting that a higher education level increases the likelihood of accepting the vaccine[ 25 ]. Similarly, a study in Turkey also determined that receiving pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations is associated with higher education levels in patients with DM[ 26 ].…”