People who have received at least one flu vaccine are 40% less likely than their unvaccinated peers to
The study compared the risk of developing the diseaseAlzheimer's disease between patients with and without pre-vaccination against influenza in a large nationwide sample of American adults aged 65 years and older.
"We found that flu vaccinationin older people, reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease for several years. The strength of this protective effect increased with the number of years a person received the annual influenza vaccine – in other words, the rate of Alzheimer's disease was lowest among those who received the flu vaccine consistently." said one of the study authors.
Future studies should evaluate whether influenza vaccination is also associated with the rate of symptom progression in patients already suffering from Alzheimer's.
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