TITLE:
Vaccinations Rates in the Elderly with Diabetes Mellitus
AUTHORS:
Sevnaz Sahin, Pinar Tosun Tasar, Yusuf Adnan Guclu, Hamide Sezgin Sengul, Niyazi Bozkurt, Alev Garip, Soner Duman, Fehmi Akcicek
KEYWORDS:
Vaccine, Diabetic, Elderly
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Aging Research,
Vol.3 No.4,
August
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: Infections are a
major cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. Improvements in health
care prevention including vaccinations and treatment have led to an increase in
the birth life expectancy. The vaccines that are now recommended for people
over 60 are influenza, herpes zoster and a vaccine combining tetanus toxoid,
reduced diphtheria toxoid, and pneumococcal vaccine. Our aim was to estimate
the prevelance of vaccination among diabetic patients attending in Tepecik
Training Hospital and in Ege University Faculty of Medicine. Patients and
Methods: Individuals at or over the age of 60 who were attending to Tepecik
Training Hospital and at Ege University Faculty of Medicine. Department of
Internal Medicine was targeted from February to May 2014. Our data are
collected from the patients face to face by questionnaire. Results: A total of
274 elderly patients with a mean ± SD (range) age of 72 ± 6 (62 - 93) years
were questioned. The vaccination ratios were determined as 34% (93) for influenza,
9.5% (26) for pneumococcal, 10.6% (27) for tetanus vaccine. The patients were
divided in two groups as diabetics and non-diabetics. The influenza vaccination
rate is 38.1% in diabetic patients, rate of 31.8% in non-diabetic patients, the
pneumococcal vaccine rate is 13.4% in diabetic patients, rate of 7.39% in
non-diabetic patients. The tetanus vaccination rate is 9.28% in diabetic
patients, rate of 11.36% in non-diabetic patients. No statistically significant
difference between two groups was determined.