The Difference of COVID-19 Vaccination Attitude, Preventive Measures and Knowledge of SARS-COV-2 Between Diabetic Patients and Healthy Citizens in China

Yanfeng Bao; Chen Dong; Qian Liang; Xiaoming Zhang; Zhifeng Gu; Chun Cheng

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S394790

The Difference of COVID-19 Vaccination Attitude, Preventive Measures and Knowledge of SARS-COV-2 Between Diabetic Patients and Healthy Citizens in China

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2023 Feb 23:16:493-502. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S394790. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yanfeng Bao^#^{1

2}, Chen Dong^#², Qian Liang², Xiaoming Zhang³, Zhifeng Gu², Chun Cheng¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine & Holistic Integrative Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Rheumatology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
³ Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology & Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: The outbreak of coronavirus disease has become an evolving global health crisis with wide-ranging implications. Clinical researches from several countries have reported greater morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 patients with diabetes. SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines are currently the relatively effective means of prevention. The research was aimed to explore the attitudes of diabetic patients towards COVID-19 vaccine and the knowledge of COVID-19 related epidemiology and epidemic prevention.

Methods: This case-control study was carried out in China via online and offline surveys. Knowledge questionnaire of COVID-19 and drivers of COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Scale (DrVac-COVID19S) were used to compare the difference of COVID-19 vaccination attitude, preventive measures, and knowledge of SARS-COV-2 between diabetic patients and healthy citizens.

Results: The diabetic patients showed lower vaccination willingness and insufficient knowledge of the transmission route and common symptoms of COVID-19. Only 60.99% diabetic patients were willing to be vaccinated. Less than half of diabetics knew the COVID-19 spread by surface touch (34.04%) or aerosol (20.57%). The common symptoms like shortness of breath/ anorexia/ fatigue/ nausea/vomiting/diarrhea (34.04%) and panic and chest tightness (19.15%) were not well comprehend too. Diabetes patients shown lower report intentions when they contact a person infected with the virus (81.56%) or have any of the disease symptoms (74.47%). Values, knowledge, and autonomy assessed by the DrVac-COVID19S scale also showed negative attitude of vaccination in patients with diabetes. Also, patient with diabetes pay less attention to national (56.03%) and international (51.77%) COVID-19 updates. The willingness to attend COVID-19 lectures (27.66%) or read information leaflets (70.92%) was low.

Conclusion: Vaccination is the effective available method for preventing the virus. Social and medical workers can increase the vaccination of diabetic patients through knowledge's popularization and patient's education based on the above differences.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccination; SARS-COV-2; diabetic patients; knowledge-attitude-behavior.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [Grant Number 2021YFE0200600].