Fashionable Flu Vaccines Present Equal Safety for US Seniors

TOPLINE:

During the 2022-2023 influenza season, an adjuvanted quadrivalent influenza vaccine (aQIV) and high-dose (HD) QIV confirmed comparable effectiveness at stopping test-confirmed influenza amongst US adults aged 65 years or older throughout all hospital settings.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers carried out a retrospective research utilizing the test-negative design to guage the effectiveness of the aQIV vs HD-QIV in stopping laboratory-confirmed influenza amongst US adults aged 65 years or older in the course of the 2022-2023 influenza season.
• They analyzed information of 30,911 sufferers (imply age, 76.7 years) from a linked administrative claims database who had an acute respiratory or febrile sickness, had been examined for influenza inside 7 days of analysis, and obtained both aQIV or HD-QIV.
• Patients who examined optimistic for influenza (n = 2361) had been categorised as circumstances, whereas those that examined destructive (n = 28,550) had been thought of management people.
• The evaluation was adjusted for demographic and scientific covariates, together with insurance coverage sort, frailty index, healthcare utilization, comorbidities, and medical circumstances related to an elevated danger for influenza issues.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 31.8% and 68.2% obtained the aQIV and HD-QIV, respectively, with comparable charges of test-positive influenza between teams in the course of the commentary interval (7.2% and seven.9%, respectively).
• The relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of aQIV vs HD-QIV confirmed no important distinction throughout all settings (adjusted rVE, -2.5%; P = .631) and emergency division/inpatient settings (adjusted rVE, 0.0%; 95% CI, -15.9% to 13.7%).
• During the height season (6 November to 24 December 2022), 13.6% of aQIV and 14.4% of HD-QIV recipients examined optimistic for influenza, and the rVE within the sensitivity evaluation was per that in the principle evaluation.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings align with current recommendations by ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] and other NITAGs [National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups] that support the use of adjuvanted and high-dose influenza vaccines in this age group,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This research was led by Mahrukh Imran, CSL Seqirus, Kirkland, Quebec, Canada. It was published online on July 11, 2025, in International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

LIMITATIONS:

The observational research design launched potential biases as a consequence of variability in the usage of healthcare assets and heterogeneity inherent within the US healthcare system, which couldn’t be totally accounted for. Vaccination was not randomized, and unmeasured confounding elements may need influenced the outcomes. The restricted pattern measurement and information privateness constraints prevented a extra detailed geographic evaluation. Moreover, influenza testing was carried out as a part of routine care than in keeping with preset screening standards.

DISCLOSURES:

This research was supported by CSL Seqirus. Three authors reported being workers of CSL Seqirus and holding inventory in CSL Limited. Three different authors reported being workers of Optum, which obtained funding from CSL Seqirus to assist this work. One writer reported receiving direct monetary assist from the research funders.

This article was created utilizing a number of editorial instruments, together with AI, as a part of the method. Human editors reviewed this content material earlier than publication.