Flu vaccination in the elderly does not reduce hospital cases
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Flu vaccination alone will not reduce pressure on
hospital beds over the winter |
Influenza vaccination should not be the sole tactic for reducing hospital admissions of elderly patients over the winter months, according to a group of UK researchers.
A case-control study examining the effect of flu vaccination on preventing
hospital admissions in the elderly between October 2003 and March 2004
found that routine flu vaccination did not reduce hospital admissions.
Cases were defined as patients who presented to their GP with acute respiratory
illness and were consequently admitted to hospital. Controls were recruited
from the patients who presented to their GP but were treated in the community.
Of the 157 cases, 74.5 per cent had received a flu vaccination at least
three weeks before they presented to the GP, compared with 74.2 per cent
of the 639 controls. After adjustment for factors such as age, sex and
smoking status, this gave an odds ratio of 1.2 (95 per cent confidence
interval 0.8–1.9).
A benefit was observed when analysis was restricted
to the weeks of peak virus activity (9 November to 9 December), although
it was not statistically significant.
However, the researchers cautioned against interpreting their results
to suggest that flu vaccination was futile, because other benefits
of vaccination (eg, reducing infection, morbidity and mortality) had
not
been assessed.
They say that rather than relying on flu vaccination to reduce winter
bed pressures, attention should be given to other factors such as treatment
of comorbidities and housing conditions.
The study was published online in Vaccine on
21 September 2007. |
Hospital
Pharmacist