High-Dose Flu Vaccine Shows Limited Additional Benefit for Healthier Seniors, Study Suggests
A recent analysis of the DANFLU-2 trial, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, indicates that the high-dose flu vaccine offers minimal additional protection against hospitalization for flu or pneumonia in healthier individuals aged 65 and older compared to the standard flu shot. The study, which involved 332,438 Danish adults over three flu seasons, found that the high-dose vaccine's advantage over the standard shot increased with the degree of frailty. Specifically, in the least frail group, the high-dose vaccine provided no measurable benefit. The researchers noted that while frailty did modify the effect when treated as a sliding score, it did not when categorized into three prespecified groups. Serious side effects were comparable between both vaccine types across all frailty groups. This analysis suggests that for seniors who are generally healthy, the standard flu vaccine is sufficient, and there is little reason to seek out the high-dose version.
