Economic evaluation of vaccination against influenza in the elderly: an experience from a population-based influenza vaccination program in Taiwan

Additive benefits of pneumococcal and influenza vaccines among elderly persons aged 75 years or older in Taiwan – A representative population-based comparative study

“…However, the reduction of hospitalization was only significant for the non-high-risk group, and was insignificant for the high-risk group. 17 The other explanation may be that heterogeneity in health system, viral strain analyzed, study design and analytical strategies used may have led to the different findings between the present study and previous studies. Another important finding is that the use of both influenza and pneumococcal vaccines not only significantly reduces all-cause mortality, but effectively decreases the hospitalization and inpatient expenditure of the elderly, particularly of those with a higher health risk.…”

Factors Associated with Pneumonia Outcomes: A Nationwide Population-Based Study over the 1997–2008 Period

“…Furthermore, we found that mortality gaps between elderly and young patients narrowed over time; namely, the decline in the mortality rate among elderly patients was faster than that among young patients. It is probable that influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among elderly patients increased over time because of gradual implementation of government-sponsored vaccination programs for the elderly 17,[32][33][34] . In 1998, a national government-sponsored influenza vaccination program for the elderly (age 65 and older) was introduced in Taiwan.…”

“…The pneumococcal vaccine has been offered for individual purchase in Taiwan since 1999 32 . Additionally, several county governments have provided free influenza vaccines to all the county's elderly population and pneumococcal vaccinations to all the county's older elderly (age 75 and older) since 2000 33,34 . Other studies have also shown declining mortality rates among patients with pneumonia over the past 10-20 years 17,35 .…”

The Relationship between Influenza Vaccination and Outpatient Visits for Upper Respiratory Infection by the Elderly in Taiwan

“…According to the criteria used in the literature [35], the influenza season in Taiwan in our study was defined based on active influenza-surveillance data from the CDC in Taiwan [39,40] …”

“…One reported national statistics on health outcomes [36]; the other two analyzed secondary data of hospitalization and mortality, collected for a specific county or city [26,35]. These studies were subject to the limitations of generalization to nationwide elderly and selection bias of being vaccinated [35], which might bias the evaluation of the effectiveness of the influenza vaccination. Given these findings, evidence on minor cases is so far not available whether the influenza vaccine could not only reduce death and hospitalization for severe cases but also reduce general influenza and upper respiratory infections (URI) in Taiwan, suggesting that it can limit the spread of an epidemic.…”