Hong Kong Med J 2012;18(Suppl 2):S4-7
Influenza vaccination and hospitalisation in Elderly Health Centres
CM Schooling, SM McGhee, BJ Cowling, GN Thomas, WM Chan, KS Ho, VCW Wong, GM Leung
Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
 
 
1. A cohort of Elderly Health Centres was examined to determine whether influenza vaccination decreased hospitalisation and mortality.
2. In the influenza season, influenza vaccination reduced all-cause mortality by half and cardiorespiratory hospitalisation by a quarter. The extent to which influenza vaccination protects older people from serious morbidity and mortality needs to be confirmed in appropriately designed studies, so that scarce health care resources can be used effectively.