ArticleThorax2003
Does influenza vaccination increase consultations, corticosteroid prescriptions, or exacerbations in subjects with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?
Article in Thorax, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immunogenicity and safety of reduced-antigen tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccination in adults treated for obstructive airway diseases.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Pooled it
- Seasonal influenza vaccination in patients with COPD: a systematic literature review.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Vaccines for preventing influenza in people with asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Influenza vaccination in the elderly: impact on hospitalisation and mortality.Drugs & aging · 2005Pooled it
- Risk Factors for COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine-Associated Exacerbations in Patients With Obstructive Airway Diseases: REsearch for Asthma and COPD ExacerbaTION Caused by COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination (REACTION Study).Allergy, asthma & immunology research · 2026Article
- Avoiding bias in self-controlled case series studies of coronavirus disease 2019.Statistics in medicine · 2021Article
- Prevalence of Seasonal Influenza Vaccination in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in the Balearic Islands (Spain) and Its Effect on COPD Exacerbations: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Respiratory viral infection: a potential "missing link" in the pathogenesis of COPD.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2019Review
- Risk of stroke following herpes zoster: a self-controlled case-series study.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2014Article
- Assessing the risk of attack in the management of asthma: a review and proposal for revision of the current control-centred paradigm.Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group · 2013Review
- Adherence and factors associated with influenza vaccination among subjects with asthma in Spain.Infection · 2013Article
- Coverage and predictors of adherence to influenza vaccination among Spanish children and adults with asthma.Infection · 2010Article
- Influenza: the virus and prophylaxis with inactivated influenza vaccine in "at risk" groups, including COPD patients.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2007Review
- Management of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the elderly : an appraisal of published evidence.Drugs & aging · 2007Review
- COPD exacerbations . 2: aetiology.Thorax · 2006Review
- Respiratory viral infections in patients with chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease.The Journal of infection · 2005Article
- Influenza Vaccine in the Elderly and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.Current infectious disease reports · 2005Article
- Update on side effects from common vaccines.Current allergy and asthma reports · 2004Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConcern over the safety of influenza vaccination in individuals with obstructive airways disease has contributed to suboptimal rates of vaccine uptake in this group. We investigated the safety of influenza vaccine in older people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a cohort from the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD).
methodsA population based cohort study of 12,000 individuals with asthma or COPD from 432 general practices was conducted. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated for asthma or COPD diagnoses, prescriptions for oral corticosteroids, and acute exacerbations on the day of vaccination and on days 1-2 and 3-14 after vaccination compared with other time periods in the influenza season.
resultsThe IRRs for asthma or COPD diagnoses and oral corticosteroid prescriptions were increased on the day of vaccination (for example, the IRR for oral corticosteroid prescriptions for subjects with asthma during the 1992-3 influenza season was 8.24 (95% confidence interval 5.54 to 12.26)). However, there was no consistent increase in the IRR of any of the outcomes on days 1-2 or 3-14 after vaccination, and most of these IRRs were close to 1. Rates of exacerbation were low and showed no consistent statistically significant increase during any risk periods.
conclusionsOlder people with asthma or COPD commonly have diagnoses recorded or prescriptions for oral corticosteroids given on the day of influenza vaccination, but there is no increased risk of adverse acute outcomes in the first 2 weeks after vaccination. Our findings strongly suggest that influenza vaccination is safe in this population.
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