Absence of association between 2019-20 influenza vaccination and COVID-19 : results of the European I-MOVE-COVID-19 primary care project, March-August 2020
Abstract
Background : Claims of influenza vaccination increasing COVID-19 risk are circulating. Within the I-MOVE-COVID-19 primary care multicentre study, we measured the association between 2019-20 influenza vaccination and COVID-19. Methods : We conducted a multicentre test-negative case-control study at primary care level, in study sites in five European countries, from March to August 2020. Patients presenting with acute respiratory infection were swabbed, with demographic, 2019-20 influenza vaccination and clinical information documented. Using logistic regression, we measured the adjusted odds ratio (aOR), adjusting for study site and age, sex, calendar time, presence of chronic conditions. The main analysis included patients swabbed ≤7 days after onset from the three countries with <15% of missing influenza vaccination. In secondary analyses, we included five countries, using multiple imputation with chained equations to account for missing data. Results : We included 257 COVID-19 cases and 1631 controls in the main analysis (three countries). The overall aOR between influenza vaccination and COVID-19 was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.66-1.32). The aOR was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.58-1.46) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.51-1.67) among those aged 20-59 and ≥60 years, respectively. In secondary analyses, we included 6457 cases and 69 272 controls. The imputed aOR was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.79-0.95) among all ages and any delay between swab and symptom onset. Conclusions : There was no evidence that COVID-19 cases were more likely to be vaccinated against influenza than controls. Influenza vaccination should be encouraged among target groups for vaccination. I-MOVE-COVID-19 will continue documenting influenza vaccination status in 2020-21, in order to learn about effects of recent influenza vaccination.
Citation
Kissling , E , Hooiveld , M , Brytting , M , Vilcu , A M , de Lange , M , Martínez-Baz , I , Sigerson , D , Enkirch , T , Belhillil , S , Meijer , A , Castilla , J , William , N , Carnahan , A S , Falchi , A , Hendriksen , J , Casado , I , Murray , J , Enouf , V , Dijkstra , F , Marques , D F P & Valenciano , M 2021 , ' Absence of association between 2019-20 influenza vaccination and COVID-19 : results of the European I-MOVE-COVID-19 primary care project, March-August 2020 ' , Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses , vol. 15 , no. 4 , pp. 429-438 . https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12839
Publication
Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1750-2640Type
Journal article
Description
The I‐MOVE‐COVID‐19 network has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101003673.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.