Influenza Vaccination Among Diabetic Adults
Related factors and trend from 1993 to 2001 in Spain
- Rodrigo Jiménez-García, PHD1,
- Elga Mayo-Montero, MD1,
- Valentín Hernández-Barrera, MD1,
- Pilar Carrasco Garrido, PHD1,
- David Martinez-Hernandez, PHD2 and
- Ángel Gil de Miguel, PHD1
- 1Preventive Medicine and Public Health Teaching and Research Unit, Health Sciences Faculty, Rey Juan Carlos University, Alcorcón, Spain
- 2Preventive Medicine Unit, Medical School, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Rodrigo Jiménez-García, Unidad de Docencia e Investigación en Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Avda. de Atenas s/n, 28922 Alcorcón, Spain. E-mail: rjimenezg{at}cs.urjc.es
People with diabetes constitute a target group for influenza vaccination since they are currently thought to run a high risk of suffering influenza-related complications (1–3).
Influenza vaccination has shown itself to be capable of producing an adequate immunologic response in subjects with diabetes, proving effective in reducing mortality and morbidity in patients with underlying chronic diseases, including diabetes, and reducing hospital admissions among diabetic patients during influenza epidemics (3–8).
For over a decade, Spanish and U.S. health authorities been recommending annual influenza vaccination for subjects who suffer diabetes (2,9,10).
To our knowledge, no nationwide campaigns exclusively targeting people with diabetes were conducted in Spain by either public or private institutions across the study period.
Based on data drawn from the 1993 and 2001 Spanish National Health Surveys (NHS), this study was aimed at 1) ascertaining influenza vaccination coverages among Spanish diabetic adults for years 1993 and 2001, 2) analyzing which factors were associated with the likelihood of persons with diabetes being vaccinated, and 3) analyzing the time trend in influenza vaccination coverages for the period 1993–2001.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on adult subjects (age ≥16 years) in Spain using individualized secondary data furnished by the 1993 and 2001 NHS. These surveys cover a representative sample …
