Endocrine Abstracts

Vaccines are the most effective tools for preventing some infections. World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of Health (MoH) in Turkey recommends vaccination for people with diabetes. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of vaccination rates among diabetes in three different cities (Kütahya, Eskisehir and Malatya) in Turkey. 475 patients (307 female, 168 male) attending outpatient clinics for endocrinology were asked to fill in a questionnaire. The vaccination rates were very low. The rate being vaccinated was 27% for influenza. The vaccination rate for pneumococcus, tetanus and hepatitis B were 8%, 20, 6% and 16, 2, respectively. The vaccination rates among type 1 diabetics were higher than type 2 diabetics. Survey results indicated that leading factor negatively influencing vaccine uptake for influenza was that 25.9% of diabetics did not know that they are in risk for influenza and 5.3% do not believe that there may be a threat of influenza pandemic or epidemic.6.1% did not want vaccination because of side effects. The reason for the lowest vaccination rate for pneumococcal vaccine may be dependent on the factor that this vaccine is not provided by health care providers, but the other vaccines are free for risk groups in Turkey. Also the pneumococcus vaccine is not well known among diabetics, because 60.6% of diabetics in our study population did not hear about the vaccine. 46.3% of diabetics reported that they did not know that there is a need of booster for tetanus immunization. Increased awareness of physicians may help improve vaccination rates against influenza, pneumococcal disease, tetanus and hepatitis B. Education programs for physicians and also diabetic patients may improve the vaccination rates in patients with diabetes.