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 “The potential impact of influenza vaccine to reduce serious illness
and death highlight the importance to renew efforts to ensure that
people with diabetes receive the flu vaccine every year,” said lead
study author Dr. Eszter Vamos, a public health researcher at
Imperial College London.
Vamos and colleagues examined seven years of data on almost 125,000
people in England with type 2 diabetes, which is associated with
aging and obesity and accounts for most cases of the disease.
Vaccination was associated with a 30 percent lower hospital
admission rates for stroke, 22 percent lower rates for heart
failure, and 15 percent lower rates for pneumonia or influenza,
researchers report in CMAJ.
“Research shows that in addition to severe chest infections, flu may
also lead to heart attacks and strokes,” Vamos said.
“Most severe influenza complications occur in the elderly and people
who suffer from long-term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease
and asthma,” she added by email.
To understand how flu vaccines may influence the odds of
hospitalization and death for diabetics, researchers examined data
on patients’ age, weight, smoking status and gender and looked at
whether patients had a diagnosis or prescription for conditions for
a variety of other medical conditions.
They looked at records both during the flu season and during summer
months when influenza cases were less common.
Patients who got the flu vaccine had 24 percent lower death rates
from all causes during the study period.
They also had lower rates of hospitalization for heart attack, but
the difference wasn’t big enough to rule out the possibility that it
was due to chance.
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One limitation of the study is that researchers weren’t able to
assess the possibility that some people had undiagnosed diabetes,
the authors note.
It’s also possible that people who get vaccinated are healthier in
other ways than people who skip their annual flu vaccine, the
authors also point out.
Even so, the findings highlight the benefits of vaccination, said
Dr. Laura Rosella, a public health researcher at the University of
Toronto who wasn’t involved in the study.
“It is well known that people with chronic conditions, including
cardiovascular disease, are more likely to suffer complications from
the flu,” Rosella said by email.
“For this reason,” Rosella added, “the best protection among people
with chronic conditions is preventing the flu in the first place,
which can be achieved by receiving the influenza vaccine.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1ATHfzi CMAJ, online July 25, 2016.
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