“The rate of cardiovascular disease in the elderly who was vaccinated the next year was 3.6%… Unvaccinated 5.4%”
“The incidence of acute coronary syndrome within one year is 45% lower than that of the unvaccinated elderly”
An elderly person vaccinated once morest the flu. Getty Images Bank
Older adults who received the flu vaccine had a lower risk of heart attack or stroke and death within the next year than those who did not get the flu vaccine, a study found.
In particular, the opinion of the research team is that the elderly with a history of cardiovascular disease should be vaccinated once morest the flu.
According to UPI News on the 30th, Bahar Beruzi and his team from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Toronto Medical School in Canada announced the results of a study showing that the flu vaccine can help prevent cardiovascular disease.
The research team comprehensively analyzed the data of six research papers that included a total of 9001 people (average age 65.5 years, women 42.5%). Among them, 52.3% had a history of heart disease.
As a result, the risk of cardiovascular disease in the following year was 3.6% for the elderly who received the seasonal flu vaccine, and 5.4% for the elderly who did not receive the vaccine, the research team said.
Older adults vaccinated once morest the flu were 45% less likely to develop acute coronary syndrome (ACS) within one year than those who were not vaccinated.
ACS is a disease in which the blood supply to the heart is insufficient due to the sudden narrowing of blood vessels due to large and small blood clots that are acutely formed in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.
In addition, older adults who received the flu vaccine also had a 46% lower risk of dying from ACS than those who did not receive the flu vaccine.
Overall, mortality from cardiovascular disease was 1.7% for those who received the flu vaccine and 2.5% for those who did not.
Infection with the flu virus can cause an increase in immune system activity along with an inflammatory response, causing a kind of ‘traffic congestion’, resulting in an increase in blood pressure and even damage to the inside of the heart, experts say.
The message of this result is that the elderly should get the flu vaccine.
The flu vaccine is particularly important for older adults with a history of cardiovascular disease, especially those with recent acute coronary syndromes, the researchers said.
The results of this study were published in the latest issue of the JAMA Network Open of the American Medical Association.