NEW YORK, Sep 30 (Reuters Health) -- Flu vaccination and treatment for swallowing problems may help protect more nursing home residents from pneumonia, a leading cause of death among elderly Americans, research suggests.
"Swallowing difficulty and lack of influenza vaccination are important, modifiable" risk factors for pneumonia and other respiratory infections in nursing home patients, researchers led by Dr. Andrew Simor of Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada, report in the September 27th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
In a 3-year study of 475 nursing home residents, Simor's team found that those who received yearly flu vaccines were 60% less likely than those who were not vaccinated to contract pneumonia, and 70% less likely to develop other respiratory infections such as bronchitis.
Residents who had difficulty swallowing while eating were twice as likely to develop pneumonia, compared to those with no swallowing problems.
The Canadian researchers also found older age and male sex to be pneumonia risk factors among the 113 study patients who developed the lung infection.
Swallowing difficulty in nursing home patients is likely a marker of aspiration, the investigators explain. Aspiration, or the breathing in of foreign materials such as regurgitated stomach contents, is thought to be common among nursing home patients. Aspiration is also associated with pneumonia.
"These patients are at high risk for aspiration and pneumonia," Simor noted. "If we can reduce the risk for aspiration, we might reduce the risk for pneumonia."
Swallowing problems might be alleviated by taking a patient off solid foods or adjusting body position during meals, the researchers noted in the report.
"What measures can be taken needs to be further studied," Simor added.
The flu vaccination rate among the study patients was "suboptimal" at less than 80%, the study authors noted.
While this rate was "not too bad," Simor said, yearly flu vaccination of nursing home residents, as well as all staff members, is an important defense against pneumonia. About half of pneumonia cases are believed to be caused by viruses such as the flu virus.
Characterized by fever, cough and breathlessness, pneumonia poses no serious risk to most people, but can be life threatening in the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
