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With the arrival of flu season come the usual exhortations to vaccinate and be vaccinated. In this case, that advice takes the form of a giant retrospective review of hospitalization and death rates among vaccinated and nonvaccinated older adults (age, ≥65) who were members of 18 U.S. HMO cohorts who were followed during 10 recent flu seasons.
Prevalence of most chronic medical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and pulmonary disease, was higher among 415,249 vaccinated adults than among 298,623 nonvaccinated adults. Older age and presence of at least one chronic condition were the strongest predictors of hospitalization and death in these cohorts. However, the rate of hospitalization for pneumonia or influenza, averaged across 1…