Should Sex Be Considered an Effect Modifier in the Evaluation of Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness?. (4th September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chambers, Catharine; Skowronski, Danuta M; Rose, Caren; Serres, Gaston De; Winter, Anne-Luise; Dickinson, James A; Jassem, Agatha; Gubbay, Jonathan B; Fonseca, Kevin; Drews, Steven J; Charest, Hugues; Martineau, Christine; Petric, Martin; Krajden, Mel
• Is Part Of: Open forum infectious diseases. Volume 5:Number 9(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-09-04
• Subjects: effect modification -- gender -- influenza vaccine -- influenza virus -- sex -- vaccine effectiveness; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Medical microbiology -- Periodicals; Infection -- Periodicals; 616.9
• DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofy211
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2328-8957

Abstract

Abstract: We investigated sex as a potential modifier of influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) between 2010–2011 and 2016–2017 in Canada. Overall VE was 49% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43% to 55%) for females and 38% (95% CI, 28% to 46%) for males (absolute difference [AD], 11%; P = .03). Sex differences were greatest for influenza A(H3N2) (AD, 17%; P = .07) and B(Victoria) (AD, 20%; P = .08) compared with A(H1N1)pdm09 (AD, 10%; P = .19) or B(Yamagata) (AD, –3%; P = .68). They were also more pronounced in older adults ≥50 years (AD, 19%; P = .03) compared with those <20 years (AD, 4%; P = .74) or 20–49 years (AD, –1%; P = .90) but with variation by subtype/lineage. More definitive investigations of VE by sex and age are warranted to elucidate these potential interactions.