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Objectives: The rate of pneumococcal and influenza vaccine use among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We aimed to determine the approaches and results of our patients and physicians to the application of pneumococcal and influenza vaccine.
Methods: In the present study, 87 patients with COPD, who applied to our polyclinics and were hospitalized between 21st January and 4th February 2019, were involved. The questions such as “age”, “sex”, “vaccination status”,” who recommended the vaccine”, “where the vaccination was performed”, and “who performed the vaccination” were asked by a physician in a face-to-face interview and then the answers were recorded.
Results: The patients were aged between 38 and 89 years and the mean age was calculated to be 68.3 years. Thirteen of our patients were female (15%) and 74 (85%) were male. From the aspect of educational status, it was determined that 54% of the patients have graduated from primary school graduate and 7% from secondary school, 7% from high school, 4% had university degree and 14% were literate. Of 87 patients, 33 (38%) had no vaccination history. The vaccination was recommended to 46 (52%) of our patients; the vaccination was recommended to 19 patients by pulmonologist, 18 patients by family physician, 2 patients by physicians from other branches (such as internal diseases specialist, cardiologist, and etc.), 2 patients by occupational physician, 1 patient by a relative of patient, and 1 patient by pharmacist. Of the patients recommended to have vaccination, 91% were vaccinated. 35% of our patients had the pneumococcal vaccination, 77% had the influenza vaccination, and 12% had both of two. None of the patients, who were not recommended to have vaccination, was vaccinated. From the aspect of opinions regarding the vaccines, 51 (58%) patients reported that they trust in vaccines, whereas 18 (20%) of the patients reported that they didn’t. The remaining 18 had no idea about the vaccines. Two of the patients, who did not trust in vaccination, had both of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines in the past, and 4 patients had only the vaccine against influenza, no pneumococcal vaccine was reported.
Conclusion: It was concluded that our patients were not sufficiently informed about the vaccine and their vaccination rates were low. It was aimed to draw the attention of physicians to this subject. We believe that informing our patients about on this subject will both reduce our workload and decrease the health expenses.