The influenza vaccination correlates to lower risk of incident tuberculosis among the elderly in Taiwan, according to a study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Researchers conducted the Taiwan-based nationwide cohort study from 2005 to 2012. It included 99,982 elderly persons, of which 64,290 received flu vaccination and 35,692 were unvaccinated.
During the follow-up, researchers found 1.14 percent of study participants had incident TB. The cumulative incidences of TB were 145.2 cases per 100,000 person-years among vaccinated elderly persons and 175.5 cases per 100,000 person-years among the unvaccinated.
Researchers also used a time-dependent Cox proportional hazards model to show the flu vaccination was an independent protective factor for incident TB.