Evaluation of Knowledge and Attitude of Parents of Asthmatic Children on the Seasonal Flu Vaccine

Objective: Flu is a respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Because of their high risk of serious flu complications, asthma patients are recommended to receive seasonal flu vaccine every year. However, it is observed that the vaccination rates in this group vary from society to society and are generally low. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of parents of asthmatic children about seasonal flu vaccine. Material and Methods: Parents of children with asthma between the ages of 3 and 18 who applied to our hospital's Pediatric Allergy Clinic between November 2019 and February 2020 and followed up for at least 6 months with a diagnosis of asthma were included in the study. Participants were asked to answer a questionnaire containing the demographic information about their families and their knowledge and attitudes about the seasonal flu vaccine. Results: Parents of 128 children with asthma were included in the study, 81.3% of the questionnaires were answered by mothers and 59.4% of the patients were male. While 57.8% of the parents stated that they had any knowledge about the flu vaccine, 47.6% knew that patients with asthma were at high risk for flu and 23.4% knew that the vaccine was free for these patients. The most frequent sources of information were doctors (59.5%), radio-TV programs (24.3%) and the internet (21.6%). At least once vaccination rate lifetime in asthmatic children and parents were 31% and 5%, respectively. While the most common reasons for vaccination were doctor's recommendation (75%) and being at high illness risk (35%), the most common reasons for not being vaccinated were not having enough information about the vaccine (36.1%) and being afraid of vaccine side effects (32.1%). Patients were grouped as those who had the seasonal flu vaccine at any time and those who did not. It was observed that in the vaccinated group the follow-up period was longer, the rates of having any knowledge about the flu vaccine, knowing that flu has a high complication risk in asthmatics and the vaccine is free for asthmatics were higher compared to not vaccinated (p< 0.001 for all). While the majority of those who said that they received information from the doctor were among those vaccinated (p< 0.001), it was more common for those who were not vaccinated to obtain information from the internet (p= 0.004). Conclusion: It has been observed that the rate of flu vaccination is low in children with asthma. It was noted that the vaccination rate was higher if the information was obtained from the doctors, and the follow-up period was longer in the vaccinated patients. For this reason, it is thought that physicians informing parents at every control and especially before the flu season will increase the rates of getting flu vaccines in children with asthma.