TUESDAY, Dec. 11, 2018 (HealthDay News) — After extensive adjustment for confounders, influenza vaccination is associated with a reduced risk for all-cause and cardiovascular death among patients with heart failure, according to a study published online Dec. 10 in Circulation.
Daniel Modin, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a nationwide cohort study including all 134,048 patients aged >18 years diagnosed with heart failure between January 2003 and June 2015. The authors examined the correlation between influenza vaccination and long-term survival; follow-up was performed for 99.8 percent of patients, with a median follow-up of 3.7 years.
The researchers found that during the study period, vaccination coverage ranged from 16 to 54 percent. Receiving one or more vaccinations during follow-up correlated with an increased risk for death in unadjusted analysis; after adjustment for inclusion date, comorbidities, medications, household income, and education level, receipt of one or more vaccinations correlated with a reduced risk for death (all-cause mortality, hazard ratio, 0.82; cardiovascular mortality, hazard ratio, 0.82). Compared with intermittent vaccination, annual vaccinations, vaccination early in the year (September to October), and a greater number of vaccinations were correlated with larger reductions in the risk for death.
“Annual influenza vaccination may be an effective treatment strategy to improve survival in heart failure,” the authors write.
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