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Evidence summaries

Vaccines for Preventing Influenza in Healthy Children

Influenza vaccines are effective in children older than two years but little evidence is available for children under two. Level of evidence: "B"

The level of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (small number of included studies in each comparison).

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 75 studies with about 300 000 subjects.

In 7 RCT:s, live attenuated vaccines showed 80% overall efficacy (RR 0.20; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.32) for children of all age groups. The RD (risk difference) for children under the age of 6 was -0.15 (95% CI -0.20 to -0.10); which means that seven children had to be vaccinated to avoid one case of influenza (NNV=7). The overall RD for those aged 2 to 16 years was -0.16 (95% CI -0.20 to -0.11); NNV = 6. No usable age-specific data for those aged two or less was found.

In 5 RCT:s, inactivated vaccines showed lower efficacy (VE = 59%) (RR 0.41; 95% CI 0.29 to 0.59) than live attenuated vaccines. The RD for those aged six or older was -0.35 (95% CI -0.54 to -0.15); NNV = 28.

    References

    • Jefferson T, Rivetti A, Di Pietrantonj C et al. Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;(8):CD004879. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords