Influenza vaccination reduces hospitalizations and deaths due to respiratory disease in older individuals, according to a new report.

Results from clinical trials suggest that flu vaccination is only 58 percent effective in preventing influenza, the authors explain in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, so it would seem unlikely that vaccination would have a large effect on mortality rates.

To look into this further, Dr. Punam Mangtani from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues compared rates of admissions for respiratory diseases and rates of death due to respiratory disease among several thousand people over age 64 years, over a 10-year period. About a third had been given flu shots.

Hospitalizations for respiratory disease were 21 percent lower among vaccinated individuals over 9 seasons of varying influenza activity, the authors report.

Similarly, the influenza vaccine reduced the risk of death due to respiratory disease during the influenza season by 12 percent, the report indicates.

Influenza vaccination provided better protection to individuals under age 84 years and to low-risk individuals, the researchers note.

These findings “should reinforce the fact that the population aged over 64 years, both at low and high risk from flu, does benefit from yearly flu vaccination over years that include both epidemic and non-epidemic years for influenza,” Mangtani told Reuters Health.

“Expansion of the UK influenza vaccination program to all adults over 64 years old is confirmed to be of benefit,” the investigator concluded.

SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases, July 1, 2004.