Researchers from the University of Calgary have found that getting vaccinated against the flu can reduce the risk of stroke in adults, even if those adults are not at a high risk for stroke. Over the course of nine years, investigators examined the medical histories of more than four million residents of Alberta. According to the findings, vaccination against influenza should be strongly recommended for all people, just as it is currently recommended for people who have heart disease.
“People who already have heart disease can benefit from the flu shot by lowering their chances of having a heart attack and having to be hospitalized. Our goal was to determine whether or not the vaccine offers the same level of protection to individuals who are at an increased risk of having a stroke “According to Dr. Michael Hill, MD, who is a researcher at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) and the principal investigator on the study, “[t]he results of this investigation are promising.” “According to our research, individuals who have recently been vaccinated against influenza have a significantly reduced risk of having a stroke. This was the case for all adults, not just those who were at an increased risk of having a stroke.”
The Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan provided the research team with the data that was used in the study. The researchers took a number of factors into consideration, such as age, the use of anticoagulants, and risk factors which included chronic health conditions.
According to Dr. Jessalyn Holodinsky, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar at the CSM and the first author of the study, “We discovered that the risk of stroke was significantly reduced in the six months following an influenza vaccination.” According to the findings, widespread vaccination against influenza might be an effective public health strategy for preventing strokes.
The findings of the study have been submitted for publication to The Lancet Public Health. According to the researchers, two of the strengths of this study are the use of data from an entire population over a period of ten flu seasons and the fact that the study took place in a province that only has one universal health-care system.
The generalized benefit of influenza vaccination for the prevention of stroke is a new finding, according to Hill, and he hopes that it will lead to more research about the indirect protective factors of the flu vaccine and other vaccines.
“It is common knowledge that infections of the upper respiratory tract come before heart attacks and strokes. A protective factor, in particular against stroke, can be achieved by either avoiding or at least mitigating the effects of influenza “says Hill. “The association between protection and this behavior was very robust. We observed that both men and women benefited from it, and that there was a discernible reduction in the risk of stroke with increasing age for those who had received a flu shot.”
The study is an addition to the body of research that has been carried out by the Calgary Stroke Program. This program is a collaboration between the University of Calgary (Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Department of Clinical Neurosciences), and Alberta Health Services at the Foothills Medical Centre.
