Assessment of Awareness and Opinions of Influenza Vaccination in Parents of Children Diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease

Objective: We evaluated the knowledge and opinions of the parents of children who were followed up with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in our pediatric nephrology clinic. Methods: A seasonal influenza vaccine questionnaire was administered to a voluntary parents of patients with CKD between the ages of 6 months and 18 who applied to the Pediatric Nephrology Department of Health Sciences University İzmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital between November 2019 and February 2020, and those who completed the questionnaire were included in the study. Results: Parents of 64 patients diagnosed with CKD completed the questionnaire. It was learned that only 44 (68.8%) participants were informed about the vaccine. It was seen that 10 patients (15.6%) had seasonal flu vaccine. Fifty-four participants who had not yet had their child vaccinated were asked about their reasons for not getting vaccine. The most frequent answer was that families did not have sufficient information about the vaccine requirement. There was no significant difference in the rate of vaccination between the two groups of patients who were administered and did not use immunosuppressive drugs. A statistically significant difference was found between accessing the information about the participants who had knowledge about vaccine. The children diagnosed with CKD were classified into two groups as having kidney transplantation and other patients. The knowledge about influenza vaccine and the awareness of the high risk of their children of influenza infection to parents of children with kidney transplantation was significantly higher. Conclusion: The rate of vaccination against influenza is very low in pediatric patients with CKD. Therefore, it is thought that this ratio can be increased by increasing the giving of information about influenza infection and vaccination to parents by physicians in pediatric nephrology clinics.