BACKGROUND:
Annual influenza vaccination is recommended for all children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) in France. Consequently, the Social Security automatically sends prescriptions to all patients suffering from a chronic disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the follow-up to these recommendations.
METHODS:
We conducted a monocentric retrospective investigation of practices. We included all children with steroid-sensitive INS in remission who attended our clinics from January 1st 2015 to January 1st 2017, resided in France and had a valid phone number. Data were collected from May 2017 to June 2017 through a phone interview and review of clinical charts.
RESULTS:
75 patients met the inclusion criteria. The parents of 57 children could be reached by phone and agreed to participate to the survey. 35/57 (61.4%) declared having received a prescription during the 2016-2017 campaign. Only 14 children (24.6%) were vaccinated. 17/43 (39.5%) parents of unvaccinated children had concerns about the safety of the vaccine, 16/43 (37.2%) were not aware of the recommendations, 5/43 (11.6%) had been recommended by their physician not to vaccinate their child, 3/43 (7%) forgot to have them vaccinated and 2/43 (4.6%) reported no reason. 13/43 (30%) unvaccinated children presented a relapse during the flu season - 2/13 during an influenza-like illness - whereas 1/14 (7%) immunized children presented a relapse during the six months of post-vaccination follow-up. Relapse rates were not increased in vaccinated children compared to unvaccinated children (p?=?0.15), nor in the 6?months following vaccination compared to the 6?months prior (1/14 vs 5/14, p?=?0.20).
CONCLUSIONS:
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