The COVID-19 Pandemic Led to a Small Increase in Changed Mentality Regarding Infection Risk without Any Change in Willingness to Be Vaccinated in Chronic Diseases Patients

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients’ perceptions regarding infection risk and vaccination in subjects suffering from chronic diseases. A prospective observational multicentric study conducted from December 2020 to April 2021 in three French University Hospitals. Patients with chronic diseases were proposed to complete a questionnaire regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infectious risk knowledge and vaccination. A total of 1151 patients were included and analyzed (62% of which were people with diabetes). The COVID-19 pandemic increased awareness of infectious risks by 19.3%, significantly more in people with diabetes (23.2%, from 54.4% to 67.0%, p < 0.01) when compared to the other high-risk patients (12.5%, from 50.5% to 56.8%, p = 0.06). Respectively, 30.6% and 16.5% of patients not up-to-date for pneumococcal and flu vaccines reported wanting to update their vaccination due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, the proportion of patients against vaccines increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (6.0% vs. 9.5%, p < 0.01). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a small increase in awareness regarding the risks of infection in patients with chronic diseases, including people with diabetes, but without any change in willingness to be vaccinated. This underlines the urgent need to sensibilize people with diabetes to infection risk and the importance of vaccination.

The Uptake and Vaccination Willingness of COVID-19 Vaccine among Chinese Residents: Web-Based Online Cross-Sectional Study

“…This is consistent with the results of previous studies. For example, people with underlying diseases were generally less willing to be vaccinated [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] as they were more likely to refuse to be vaccinated due to worrying that the vaccination would aggravate their underlying diseases. This was more likely for women who were pregnant or preparing for pregnancy to refuse vaccinations, studies showed that they may hesitate to uptake the vaccine [33,34] due to the concerns about vaccine safety that large sample studies on the safety of vaccines in this group were invalid [33,35].…”

Vaccination for Respiratory Infections in Patients with Heart Failure

“…On the other hand, some patients are either more skeptical towards vaccination against COVID more specifically or towards vaccination in general. In contrast, patients with chronic disease including chronic HF could be aware of the danger, as recently suggested [ 51 ].…”

The Effect of Pneumococcal, Influenza, and COVID-19 Vaccinations on COVID-19 Hospitalization and Progression in People over 65 Years Old Living in Nursing Homes

“…Studies by Breuker et al, Zhou et al, and Loubet et al, have shown that individuals with chronic diseases and at risk for pneumococcal, influenza, and COVID-19 diseases have increased awareness of communicable diseases with pandemics and epidemics. The tendency of these individuals to be vaccinated against pneumococcus and influenza have increased compared to the past [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. According to the meta-analysis in which 27 studies were included, the frequency of influenza vaccination increased with the pandemic worldwide, regardless of factors such as region, age, and sex [ 20 ].…”