54 percent of adults with work-related asthma, 35 percent with non-work-related asthma vaccinated
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Adults with work-related asthma are more likely that those with non-work-related asthma to have received pneumococcal vaccination, although only 53.7 percent with work-related asthma have been vaccinated, according to a study published online Sept. 27 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Noting that one of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to achieve 60 percent pneumococcal vaccination coverage among high-risk adults, including those with asthma, Katelynn E. Dodd, M.P.H., and Jacek M. Mazurek, M.D., Ph.D., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Morgantown, West Virginia, examined vaccination coverage by work-related asthma status among ever-employed adults with current asthma. Data from the 2012-2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Asthma Call-back Survey were assessed for ever-employed adults aged 18 to 64 years with current asthma from 29 states.
The researchers found that 42 percent of the estimated 12 million ever-employed adults with current asthma had received a pneumococcal vaccine. The likelihood of receiving a pneumococcal vaccine was increased for adults with work-related asthma versus those with non-work-related asthma (53.7 versus 35 percent, respectively; prevalence ratio, 1.24). Pneumococcal vaccine coverage was lowest among Hispanics and those without health insurance (36.2 and 38.5 percent, respectively) among adults with work-related asthma.
“Health care providers should verify pneumococcal vaccination status in their patients with asthma and offer the vaccine to those not vaccinated,” the authors write.
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