Pneumococcal Vaccination Rate among Elderly in South Korea

Background: Pneumococcal vaccination among elderly is important for prevention of pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). There are few studies of pneumococcal vaccination among elderly in South Korea. The aim of study is to examine the pneumococcal vaccination rate for people aged over 65 in South Korea and identify the proportion of the high risk group. Methods: We analyzed data from The Third Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES III) 2005. The subjects of this study include persons over 65 years. We used questionnaires about demographics, chronic diseases and individual health behavioral risk factors, which were needed to indentify the high risk group. Results: There were 1,097 persons of observation. The rate of pneumococcal vaccination among 65 years and over was 0.8%. The proportion of the men and women with one more risk factors was 77.3%, 62.8% respectively. Chronic cardiovascular diseases and diabetes were major risk factors among targets recommended vaccination. In men, the proportion of smoke and chronic alcoholism (33.2%, 12.3%) was higher compare to 7.4%, 0.3% in women (p<0.001, p<0.001). The proportion of chronic cardiovascular diseases (48.0%) in women was higher than (38.7%) in men (p=0.012). Conclusion: The rate of pneumococcal vaccination among elderly in South Korea was seriously very low compared to that of influenza vaccination. That might be due to unawareness of the necessity to vaccinate. Clinicians should encourage the vaccination as well take a leading role in government health policy