Study: Certain diabetes patients widely nonadherent to vaccination guidelines

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A new study from the American Diabetes Association has found significant nonadherence to vaccination guidelines among certain diabetes patients. In patients with diabetes who are at increased risk for infection and infectious disease complications as a result, more than half don’t receive vaccination for the flu or pneumococcal disease, and none had been vaccinated against hepatitis B per Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices guidelines. 

 

Because none of the patients studied had been vaccinated against hepatitis B, researchers looked at the 39% of patients eligible for a hepatitis B vaccine, and found that only 41% of them had received a flu vaccine — below the estimated rate of high-risk individuals who receive a flu vaccine. Only 39% had been immunized against pneumococcal disease — far below the estimated 6.2% immunization rate for adults over 65 years of age. A mere 19% received both vaccines. 

 

“The most noteworthy result of this study is the failure to immunize patients with diabetes with the hepatitis B vaccine,” the study said. “This indicates that many providers may be unaware of the 2011 ACIP hepatitis B vaccination recommendation for this population.”