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Flu Vaccine Seems Less Effective for Elderly

The final results of a study involving thousands of male and female pneumonia patients, aged from 65 to 94, has revealed a questionable degree of benefit of annual influenza vaccinations in the elderly population.  In spite of the findings, however, Michael L. Jackson, a co-author of the report describing the study, says he still wants his grandmother to get her annual flu shots.

Jackson and colleagues, working from the Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies, used his own center’s data on an excess of 3,500 patients of the Group Health system.  Jackson, a PhD, MPH, postdoctoral fellow at the center, says his study is the largest of its kind to study the effects of the flu vaccine on an elderly, case-controlled study.

Each pneumonia patient was matched to a control study participant of the same age and gender but without being ill with pneumonia.  All study participants, in both the test and the control groups, had healthy immune systems and none of them lived in a nursing facility.  The study was scheduled to coincide with the time that elapses between flu vaccines becoming available and the actual onset of flu season.

Using data considered more clinically pure than that evaluated in previous studies, Jackson and his research team reached the conclusion that there is protection for the elderly to be gotten with the annual flu shots but the benefit is much weaker than it is for younger people getting the vaccination.

The research team also believes that it is the healthier, more mobile senior citizens who are getting vaccinated in spite of the immune-boosting benefits of their more robust health.  The frail elderly population, which is more immune compromised anyway, is generally less inclined to make the necessary steps to get vaccinated.

The research team considers flu vaccines to be safe for people of any age and says the elderly population should continue getting vaccinated each year.  The team suggests the study’s findings will alert physicians to the need to tailor medical treatment for older pneumonia patients in ways that complement both the age of the patient but also the flu vaccine itself.

Source: Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies

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