Last update:
   11-Nov-2024
 

Arch Hellen Med, 41(6), November-December 2024, 815-825

ORIGINAL PAPER

Factors that affected diabetics' pneumococcal vaccination in the COVID-19 pandemic era

I. Efstratiou,1 S. Plakas,1 P. Galanis,2 A. Rodi-Burriel,3 T. Adamakidou,1 M. Kitsou,1 C. Tsiou1
1Department of Nursing, University of West Attica, Athens,
2Department of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens,
3Department of Nursing, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

OBJECTIVE The measurement of pneumococcal vaccination coverage and the investigation of factors that affect it in diabetic individuals.

METHOD A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 554 adult diabetic patients was conducted. Participants were contacted –from December 2021 to May 2022– either face-to-face during their visit as diabetic outpatients to a public hospital, or online with the help of specializing associations. For data collection, a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Health Belief Model was used. The questions referred to knowledge, medical facilitating conditions, perceived risk, healthcare professionals' recommendations and attitudes about pneumococcal vaccination. All ethical rules governing research in human beings were applied.

RESULTS The pneumococcal vaccination coverage was 66.4%. Moderate level of knowledge (medium score: 2±1.2), but high levels of perceived risk (medium score: 3.8±0.7), adherence to vaccination recommendations (medium score: 4±1.1) and attitudes (medium score: 4±0.7) towards pneumococcal vaccination were measured. According to the results of multivariate logistic regression, a statistically significant positive correlation was demonstrated between vaccination coverage and diabetics who were older (p=0.002), non-married (p=0.02), employed (p=0.004), had a normal body mass index (BMI) (p=0.046, p=0.001), were vaccinated for influenza (p=0.008) and those who had higher knowledge (p<0.001), had received more positive recommendations from healthcare professionals (p<0.001) and had adopted positive attitudes (p=0.032) concerning the pneumococcal vaccination.

CONCLUSIONS Factors influencing pneumococcal vaccination of diabetics are various socio-demographic factors, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors regarding the above vaccination. Continuous information and recommendations from healthcare professionals are perhaps the most essential pillars of designing an improved preventive strategy for pneumococcal vaccination coverage.

Key words: Attitudes, Diabetes, Knowledge, Pneumococcus, Vaccination.

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