COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases in a German Outpatient Clinic: An Observational Study

Abstract

Background: In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, highly effective and safe vaccines became available. Since patients with rheumatic diseases show increased susceptibility to infections and typical medications raise the risk of severe COVID-19, high vaccination coverage is of significant importance to these patients. Methods: Consecutive patients with different rheumatic diseases were asked for their vaccination status regarding COVID-19, influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae during their routine consultations. Any reported vaccination was validated with their personal vaccination card and/or by reviewing the CovPass smartphone app. Reasons for not having a COVID-19 vaccination were documented. Results: A total of 201 patients (mean age 62.3 ± 14.1 years) were included, the majority of them (44.3%) with rheumatoid arthritis, followed by spondyloarthritis (27.4%) and connective tissue diseases (21.4%). Vaccination coverage for SARS-CoV-2 was 80.1%; 85.6% got at least the first vaccination shot. Both valid influenza and pneumococcus coverage were associated with a higher probability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination (odds ratio (OR) 6.243, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.637–14.783, p < 0.0001 and OR 6.372, 95% CI 2.105–19.282, p = 0.0003, respectively). The main reason for a missing SARS-CoV-2 vaccination (70%) was being sceptical about the vaccine itself (i.e., the subjective impression that the vaccine was not properly tested and fear of unwanted side effects). Conclusions: Vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2 is high in patients with rheumatic diseases. Nevertheless, there are unmet needs regarding vaccination education to further increase vaccination rates.

Vaccination coverage of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: Challenging issues from an outpatient secondary care setting in Greece

“…Data from different settings and specific age group patients with different chronic diseases vary and caution is required in their interpretation. Nevertheless, similar vaccination rates in patients with different chronic conditions have been noticed ( 37 – 39 ). This could help shaping current health attitudes to influence future care decisions regarding vaccination of patients with chronic diseases.…”

COVID-19 pandemic impairs medical care of vasculitis patients in Germany: Results of a national patient survey

“…The majority ( n = 92/104; 88.5%) stated they had never refused any vaccinations. The rate of COVID-19 vaccination was exceptionally high compared to previously reported studies focused on RMD patients ( 10 – 12 ) as well as in the general population in Germany 1 .…”

“…Ultimately, vaccinations against COVID-19 were approved and recommended for patients diagnosed with RMDs (7-9). Reported vaccination rates in these patients ranged from 30.2 to 80% between June and October 2021 (10)(11)(12).…”

Do Not Leave Your Patients in the Dark—Using American College of Rheumatology and European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology Recommendations for Vaccination in Polish Adult Patients with Autoimmune Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases

“…The low vaccination rate among AIIRD patients found in our study is not surprising in this context but fits into the available literature data. The vaccination rate among AIIRD patients varies between different countries and is between 1.5 and 92.4% for influenza vaccines [6,7,, 5.8 and 71.2% for the pneumococcal vaccine [13,[15][16][17][18][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]37,38,[41][42][43][44][45][46], 24.3 and 83.7% for tetanus vaccination (booster within 10 years) [26,27,29,33,41,42], and 35.8 and 98.1% for the COVID-19 vaccine (following the recommendations applicable at the time of this study) [6,[40][41][42][43][47][48][49]. An additional problem is the fact that vaccination coverage in Polish AIIRD patients is comparably low as in the general Polish population, even though AIIRD patients constitute a group of particular ...…”