Abstract
Evaluation of: Nichol KL, Nordin JD, Nelson DB, Mullooly JP, Hak E: Effectiveness of influenza vaccine in the community-dwelling elderly. N. Engl. J. Med. 357(14), 1373–1381 (2007). Recent publications have questioned the benefit of influenza vaccination in the older adult population. To address this issue, Nichol et al. reported a study of 713,872 person-seasons over ten influenza seasons, which showed that influenza vaccination was associated with significant reductions in influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths among community-dwelling older adults. The comprehensive database ensured adequate baseline and follow-up data for annually defined influenza seasons. This analytic method reduces the potential of survivor bias when the baseline is established in the summer months preceding the influenza season, as has been used in other studies. The results were further supported by a sensitivity analysis using a hypothetical confounder to detect a healthy vaccinee bias and showed that the hospitalization and mortality benefit of influenza vaccination was maintained.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
Janet E McElhaney has financial involvement related to honoraria, consultancies and/or research support from Dynavax, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Novavax and Sanofi Pasteur. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.