Here is twist on the potential benefits of influenza vaccination. As summarized in this article published in JAMA, influenza vaccination may impact cardiovascular risk.The authors performed a meta-analysis with 5 published and 1 unpublished randomized clinical trials of 6735 patients (mean age, 67 years; 51.3% women; 36.2% with a cardiac history; mean follow-up time, 7.9 months).
Receipt of influenza vaccine was associated with a lower risk of composite cardiovascular events (2.9% vs 4.7%; RR, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.48-0.86], P = .003) in published trials. The greatest effect was seen in patients with more active coronary disease.
Association does not mean causality and these results must be replicated with adequately powered, prospective, multi-center trials of influenza vaccination with specific cardiac endpoints.
Decreased cardiac risk of death may be a persuasive argument for those clinic patients insistent on avoiding influenza vaccination.
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