Scan the health news today and you’ll see lots of reports about dangerous infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, mpox and avian flu. But there’s another one that’s been around for more than a century and continues to remain an ongoing threat, especially to older people: Influenza.
Some people still think influenza isn’t that serious or that it’s just a really bad cold. In fact, it is a common cause of pneumonia, and together flu and pneumonia are the eighth-leading cause of death in Canada, with people aged 65 or over accounting for 46% of influenza-related hospitalizations and 76% of influenza-related deaths.
Many of these hospitalizations and deaths could be prevented with a more concerted effort to increase vaccination rates for our most vulnerable, through better education about the importance of getting a seasonal flu shot formulated for their specific needs, and by making the vaccination process as convenient and least costly as possible.
A recent survey I led, through the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), underlines the importance of health-care providers offering information about vaccinations, including special types of vaccines available for older adults whose immune systems may have weakened as they aged. More than 82% of older Canadians who responded to the survey said the opinion of their health-care provider is an important part of their decision when it comes to getting the flu shot.
The survey also confirms these vital conversations can also impact older adults’ knowledge about the types of flu shots that are available, including enhanced influenza vaccines (EIVs) specifically designed to provide older patients with better protection. For example, 29% of older Canadians told the NIA they didn’t know there were flu shots specifically made for people 65 years of age or older.
All physicians in training learn about the routine childhood immunization schedule and share that information with patients who are new parents or parents-to-be. But our health-care system doesn’t always remind people about the essential vaccinations they need later in life.
To help improve awareness, the NIA recently published “A Guide to Vaccines for Older Canadians.” Available in 18 languages, it explains the importance of vaccines to enable healthy aging and provides information on the six essential vaccinations every older Canadian should get, including an annual seasonal influenza shot. Patients can take this handy and important resource to their physician, pharmacist or community health worker to discuss their personal vaccination schedule.
Of course, this is only part of the solution. We also need to make sure enhanced influenza vaccines are easily available, that the cost is covered by provincial or territorial health-care plans and that patients know they can be safely co-administered with other needed vaccines.
Here, too, there is more work to do. For example, the NIA survey found only 58% of older Canadians who got a seasonal flu shot last year received it at the same time as another vaccine. Those who did not say it was either because they weren’t offered another vaccine, didn’t know they could receive other vaccines at the same time or thought having more than one vaccine at a time would reduce the flu vaccine’s effectiveness (it doesn’t).
I know the top priorities of my older patients are to stay independent and healthy for as long as possible. We can help them achieve these goals by increasing efforts to educate patients and practitioners about the importance of vaccines, encouraging health-care providers to discuss an older person’s vaccination opportunities and making vaccinations widely available in different health-care settings.
When we made COVID-19 vaccinations available in various locations and administered them free of charge, we achieved a 97% vaccination rate among older adults. Surely, we can do the same with seasonal influenza and other essential vaccines for this age group, particularly for patients who do not have a family physician.
-Dr. Samir Sinha is director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto and director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing