Diabetic adults are more vulnerable to influenza, and thus need to get vaccinated, shows a new study released by the University of Alberta.
The research looked at the hospital records of more than 160,000 and followed them over eight years.
“Our main finding is that working-aged adults, aged 18 to 64, with diabetes appear to be at an increased risk of being hospitalized with influenza compared to similar aged adults without diabetes,” said lead researcher and St. Albert resident Jeffrey Johnson.
Although the study showed that people with diabetes are more likely to get flu shots than non-diabetics, they were still at a six per cent increased risk to be hospitalized for influenza.
Johnson noted the risk is small, but is still justification for vaccination campaigns to target diabetics as a high-risk group (such as young children, people over the age of 65 and those with chronic disease).
The Canadian Diabetes Association recommends that people with diabetes receive their flu immunization annually.
Johnson said the recommendation is called a “grade D recommendation.”
“It means we don’t have a lot of research evidence to support that recommendation, it’s just what we think should be done based on clinical intuition.”
Research to support the guidelines adopted by the Canadian Diabetes Association and other provincial health authorities has been scant and limited. The current study however, provides data to support them.
Johnson said the number of hospitalizations from influenza show just how severe the virus can be and is also associated with increased cost to the health-care system.
Given the cost of hospitalization and public health campaigns that urge people to get vaccinated, even a 20 per cent reduction in the risk of contracting the flu would be economically worthwhile, he explained.
According to data released by Alberta Health during the peak of the flu season this year, there are as many as 4,000 deaths and 20,000 hospitalizations from influenza across Canada on a yearly basis.
The average cost of being treated in hospital is $17,000.
A recent online poll by Ipsos Reid of more than 800 Albertans found that 57 per cent of people did not get the flu shot this year. The majority of avoiders (58 per cent) believed the side effects of the vaccine are more problematic than getting the flu itself.
Johnson said he would like to see those numbers change.
“Part of this is because of fear,” he said. “We need to make the public aware that there is very little risk in getting immunized.”
He said that, in regards to targeting people with diabetes to get vaccinated, proactive public health interventions such as phone or email reminders to get a flu shot have been shown to work.
