No change in flu shot rates for children from '15-16 to '16-17
(HealthDay)—Children who received an injectable influenza vaccine (IIV) in 2015-2016 were only slightly more likely than those receiving live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) to return the following season for an IIV, according to a study published online Oct. 6 in Pediatrics.
Steve G. Robison, M.P.H., from the Oregon Health Authority in Salem, and colleagues compared matched cohorts of children selected based on LAIV or IIV receipt during the 2015-2016 season. The authors assessed differences between the IIV and LAIV cohorts in returning for the IIV in the 2016-2017 season, which followed the withdrawal of the recommendation promoting LAIV use by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The researchers found that there was no change in influenza immunization rates overall for children aged 2 to 17 years between the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons. Children aged 3 to 10 years and 11 to 17 years with a previous IIV were 1.03 and 1.08 times more likely to return, respectively, than those with a previous LAIV.
"Withdrawal of the LAIV recommendation was not associated with an overall change in child influenza immunization rates across seasons," the authors write. "Children with a previous (2015-2016) IIV were slightly more likely to return during the 2016-2017 season for influenza immunization than those with a previous LAIV."
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