Flu Vaccine Lowers Hospitalization Risk in Heart Failure Patients

The flu vaccine lowers the risk of hospitalization for patients with heart failure (HF), according to new research from the United Kingdom.

Current guidelines advise elderly patients with HF to get an annual flu vaccine to reduce the risk of adverse events. However, little research has supported this recommendation. It is generally believed that the
vaccine is less effective in patients with HF, because their immune response is already weakened.
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The researchers conducted their study to better understand the impact of the flu vaccine on the risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and all causes in patients with HF.

To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed 59,202 patient records from the UK Department of Health’s Clinical Practice Research Datalink of adults with heart failure who received the flu vaccine in the UK from 1990 to 2013.

The researchers compared the patient records from the year in which the patient was vaccinated to an adjacent year when they were not.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that, during the 31 to 300 days after vaccination, patients had a 30% lower risk of hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease, 16% lower risk of hospitalization due to respiratory infections, and 4% lower risk of all-cause hospitalizations.

“Despite the measures taken, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility of residual confounding explaining at least part of the observed association,” the researchers concluded. “But the findings do provide further evidence that there are likely worthwhile benefits and on that basis more efforts are needed to ensure that heart failure patients receive an annual flu jab.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Flu jab associated with fewer hospitalisations in patients with heart failure [news release]. Florence, Italy: European Society of Cardiology; May 23, 2016. http://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/Last-5-years/flu-jab-associated-with-fewer-hospitalisations-in-patients-with-heart-failure. Accessed May 23, 2016.

Rahimi K. Influenza vaccination and risk of hospitalisation in patients with heart failure: a report from the UK primary and secondary care records. Paper presented at: Heart Failure 2016 and the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure; May 21-24, 2016; Florence, Italy. http://spo.escardio.org/SessionDetails.aspx?eevtid=1126&sessId=17223&subSessId=0&searchQuery=%2fdefault.aspx%3feevtid%3d1126%26days%3d%26topics%3d%26types%3d%26rooms%3d%26freetext%3dlate%2bbreaking%2btrials%26sort%3d1%26page%3d1%26showResults%3dTrue%26nbPe#.V0NLOOcrKvM.