Over 50? Get a Flu Shot, Experts Say
Hospitalization and death rates drop among those immunized

(HealthDay News) -- It may not be perfect. And it might work a bit better in younger people. But getting a flu shot each year has proven advantages for older people.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that a flu shot can reduce the risk of influenza-related deaths in people over age 65 by almost 50 percent and drop the risk of an older person being hospitalized because of flu complications by 27 percent.

"I think this study is reassuring, and it does the best job you can do to assess the efficacy of flu vaccine in the elderly," Dr. John Treanor, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York , told HealthDay . Treanor wrote an editorial related to the study that also appeared in the journal.

Flu, or influenza, is an infectious disease that is spread through coughing, sneezing or nasal secretions. Each year in the United States , more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications and about 36,000 people die from the flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Many people fail to appreciate the serious complications of influenza," the lead author of the study, Dr. Kristin Nichol, chief of medicine at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis , told HealthDay .

Some of the doubt about the efficacy of the vaccine in older people stems from a study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal that questioned the results of past research that found a reduction in death rates in people who had been vaccinated against the flu. The authors of the study suggested that the reason the death rate is lower among people who've had flu vaccines is that people who choose to get vaccinated are healthier to begin with.

But, Nichol and her colleagues reviewed a decade of data for 18 groups of elderly people who lived in private homes or apartments. In all, more than 400,000 vaccinated people and about 300,000 unvaccinated people, all older than 65, were included in the study.

Even after adjusting for a number of variables, the researchers found that hospitalizations and deaths related to the flu were significantly lower among people who were vaccinated.

"The vaccine is nowhere near 100 percent effective, and it's probably true that the elderly don't respond as well as younger people do," Treanor said. "But, that does not mean that we shouldn't use the vaccine in older people, but that we should think about other ways to prevent the disease."

The CDC recommends that everyone older than 50 should be vaccinated for the flu each year, along with all children between 6 months and 18 years old. The CDC also recommends that people with chronic diseases or a weakened immune system should be vaccinated annually, as well as any woman who will be pregnant during flu season. Residents of nursing homes are also advised to get a flu shot each year.

On the Web

To learn more about the flu and older people, visit the National Institute on Aging.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Kristin Nichol, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., chief of medicine, VA Medical Center, and professor of medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; John Treanor, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.; Oct. 4, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine ; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
Author: Serena Gordon
Publication Date: Oct. 31, 2008
Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.