Scientists from UTHealth Houston found that people who received at least one influenza vaccine were 40% less likely than their non-vaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the course of four years.
The research is published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and was conducted by Avram S. Bukhbinder et al.
In the study, the team compared the risk of Alzheimer’s disease incidence between patients with and without prior flu vaccination in U.S. adults aged 65 and older.
These participants included 935,887 flu-vaccinated patients and 935,887 non-vaccinated patients.
During four-year follow-up appointments, about 5.1% of flu-vaccinated patients were found to have developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Meanwhile, 8.5% of non-vaccinated patients had developed Alzheimer’s disease during follow-up.
The team found that flu vaccination in older adults reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
The strength of this protective effect increased with the number of years that a person received an annual flu vaccine—in other words, the rate of developing Alzheimer’s was lowest among those who consistently received the flu vaccine every year.
These results underscore the strong protective effect of the flu vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease, However, the underlying mechanisms behind this process require further study.
Future research should assess whether flu vaccination is also linked to the rate of symptom progression in people who already have Alzheimer’s dementia.
The team believes that the immune system is complex, and some alterations, such as pneumonia, may activate it in a way that makes Alzheimer’s disease worse.
But other things that activate the immune system may do so in a different way—one that protects from Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 6 million people living in the U.S., with the number of affected individuals growing due to the nation’s aging population.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about daytime napping strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and how to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about how Alzheimer’s disease is treated, and results showing alternative drug strategy against Alzheimer’s disease.
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