When getting a flu shot, patients may want to consider an early-morning appointment as opposed to getting the vaccine in the afternoon, according to a study in Vaccine.
Two dozen physicians in the U.K. participated in a study in which they vaccinated 267 adults over age 65. The patients were vaccinated in the morning or afternoon between 2011 and 2013 during the annual U.K. flu vaccine program.
Researchers took patients' antibody levels post-vaccination, and those vaccinated in the morning had a greater antibody response than those who got the shot in the afternoon.
"This simple manipulation in the timing of vaccine administration to favor morning vaccination may be beneficial for the influenza antibody response in older adults, with potential implications for vaccination strategies generally," the study concludes.