Efeitos da vacina da influenza na morbidade e mortalidade do idoso no Espírito Santo

Abstract

This study evaluates the influenza vaccine’s effects on morbidity and mortality of the elderly. It analyses a group of people who are 65 years old or over, which has hospital admission registration in the “Sistema Único de Saúde”. It also analyses a group of people who are 60 years old or over with death registration because of related diseases by influenza, from 1995 to 2003, in Espírito Santo State. Vaccination against influenza (flu) for the entire population over 60 years old happens every year since 1999. It lets us evaluate how the elderly behave face to these two variables, morbidity and mortality, before and after vaccination mentioned above. The data were analyzed by the Social Package Statistical Science called SPSS version 8.0 – 1997. It concludes that the found data is statistically significant for morbidity (hospital admission), showing that the vaccine intervention is effective. When it comes to the variable mortality, there is no significant difference in the data found before and after the vaccination, which demonstrates the necessity of more information.