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 “This is a free (course of action) that could seriously boost older
adults’ vaccination response with no adverse effects,” Dr. Anna C.
Phillips from University of Birmingham told Reuters Health by email.
Vaccines work by getting the immune system to produce
infection-fighting antibodies that swing into action upon exposure
to the actual disease.
Because a person’s immune response varies through the course of the
day, some researchers have suggested that vaccines might work better
if they’re given at some times of the day rather than at other
times.
Phillips's team randomly assigned 276 older adults to receive an
influenza vaccine in the morning (9-11 AM) or in the afternoon (3-5
PM).
One month later, they analyzed blood samples from each person to
measure antibodies against the flu virus.
Antibody levels went up in both groups, but the increases were
significantly higher for those who got vaccinations in the morning
instead of in the afternoon, the authors reported in the journal
Vaccine.
Men and women both showed better responses after the morning
vaccination.
The researchers looked at a variety of immune and hormone factors,
but none could explain what they were seeing. “We don’t yet know
exactly how this morning effect is working,” Phillips said.
The study only looked at antibody levels, not at whether people
actually got the flu later on.
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Still, Phillips advises, “Don’t wait for the definitive trial to
check that the increased levels of antibodies relate to decreased
disease risk. We know that’s what antibodies do . . . so start this
now.”
But Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, director of operations research for Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's International Vaccine
Access Center in Baltimore, Maryland, warned, “We should be careful
about jumping to conclusions from the study.”
“Many people already struggle to find time to get the flu vaccine,”
Lee told Reuters Health by email. “They find it difficult to miss
work or take time out of the day to go to a clinic or somewhere else
to get the flu vaccine. The afternoon or the evening may be the only
time of day that people can get the vaccine. You don’t want people
thinking that the vaccine is only effective if given in the morning
or that people should wait a long while until they have a morning
available.”
“Ultimately,” he said, “if future studies indeed confirm that time
of day may make a difference, then flu vaccination needs to become
much more convenient; for example, employers offer them at work. Our
previous studies have shown that doing so can save employers costs.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1pCyvgq Vaccine, online April 26, 2016.
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reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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