Eureka! Institutional Repository

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease in which the patient's pancreas is unable to produce insulin, a hormone necessary for the metabolism of glucose in the body. Because diabetes has the ability to affect almost all the systems and organs of the body, it is a serious risk factor for the occurrence of infections. In particular, when the dysfunction occurs in childhood, the necessary measures to protect the organism must be taken and children must be fully vaccinated according to the guidelines of the National Immunization Program. Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the existence of the relationship and importance between the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus type 1 in children and their typical appearance in the implementation of their general mandatory vaccination. Methodology: The research sample consists of 88 participants, all children (38 boys - 50 girls), with type 1 diabetes with an average age of 11 ± 5 years. Data collection was performed from April to November of 2022 with access to the children's standard vaccination booklets, while visiting the outpatient diabetes clinics of the 1st Pediatric department of the Hippocratione Hospital of Thessaloniki, after parental consent. Results: Evaluating the rates of performing recommended doses of vaccines of all children used for the research, we see that children with diabetes mellitus and by extension their parents respond positively to the recommendations of their pediatricians and the guidelines of our country's vaccination program. Conclusions: Children with type 1 diabetes mellitus followed their scheduled vaccination program within the prescribed time frames. The diagnosis of their diabetes mellitus may sometimes have led to a delay, but not a postponement of the doses in the immediate period after the diagnosis. Some missed doses or delays of doses appear to be casual and due to individual parental preferences or adoption of older vaccination schedules with different time frames.