Flu shots in higher dose can reduce hospitalization cases among nursing home patients, study finds

A new study presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting in San Diego reveals that increasing flu shots by four times significantly reduces the number of influenza patients being hospitalized during flu season, EurekAlert reports.

Conducted by Dr. Stefan Gravenstein, director of the Center for Geriatrics and Palliative Care at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and his team, the study analyzed over 50,000 participants with ages 65 and older, with more than 14,000 of them aged 90 and above.

The participants were from 823 nursing homes in 38 states across America and were all given influenza shots between November 2013 to March 2014. Researchers randomly assigned nursing homes to either the group with standard care for influenza with the regular dose or higher doze of vaccine.

The study revealed that in the regular dose influenza vaccine group, 20.9 percent of the group were hospitalized, while 19.7 percent of the higher dose vaccine were hospitalized. The difference may be only 1 percent, but researchers say that this is a significant difference.

"If given to all approximately 1.5 million nursing home residents, a one percent drop in hospitalizations would translate to thousands fewer being hospitalized," Dr. Gravenstein said.

He added that "Flu in a nursing home population is a major cause of hospitalizations. In addition to pneumonia, flu can contribute to heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes, especially in an older nursing home population where it can easily spread among residents. In our study, for every 83 individuals receiving the high dose vaccine a person was prevented from being hospitalized during the influenza season."

The CDC reports that one in five influenza patients are hospitalized during the flu season. The organization also reports that those over 65 are at greatest risk for severe flu disease. Additionally, 80 to 90 percent of seasonal flu-related deaths occur to those over the age of 65.

Researchers also highlighted the fact that vaccines are still effective in the elderly, a point that has been questioned previously. CDC reports, however, that the high-dose vaccine, which contains four times the amount of antigen as the regular flu shot is 24.2 percent more effective in preventing flu among people aged 65 and up compared to the standard-dose flu vaccine. Immunity following vaccination sets in after two weeks but wanes over a year, so individuals are encouraged to have yearly vaccinations against the flu for optimal protection.

According to Medical Daily, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a group of medical and public health experts that develop recommendations on use of vaccines in the civilian population, will determine if the higher dose should be given as standard practice in nursing homes across the country.