Encouraging Patients to Get H1N1 and Other Vaccinations Is Imperative; (Full title Below)

Encouraging Patients to Get H1N1 and Other Vaccinations Is Imperative; AGS’ New Immunization “Pocket Card” and FHA’s Vaccine “Tip Sheets” Can Help Seniors Understand Why

This flu season, about 36,000 Americans are expected to die of complications from seasonal influenza, and most of these deaths will be among older adults. Although the flu vaccine has been conclusively shown to lessen both the risk and the severity of influenza, one-third of older adults don’t get it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also estimates that one-third of seniors have never been vaccinated against pneumococcal disease.

With statistics like these, it’s clear that we all need to do more to educate older people about these essential immunizations—and encourage them to get vaccinated. This year, we also need to do more to encourage older patients to get the H1N1 vaccine. The vaccine was in short supply during the fall, and because healthy older adults aren’t in the high-priority group for H1N1 immunization, many seniors have had to wait for it. This has been frustrating—for older adults and for clinicians—but the vaccine is increasingly available now, and we should encourage our older patients to get it. While healthy seniors are less susceptible to H1N1 than younger people, older people tend to have more severe disease and higher mortality if they do contract the virus.

To help clinicians ensure that their older patients get all of their needed vaccinations, the American Geriatrics Society, with an educational grant from Merck, recently developed “A Pocket Guide to Common Immunizations for the Older Adult (≥ 65 Years).” You’ll find it, reformatted for this journal, on the following pages. The pocket guide includes essential information about four must-have vaccines for seniors: flu, pneumococcal, herpes zoster, and tetanus/diphtheria immunizations. It also includes information about five additional vaccinations that older travelers going abroad may need.

For each of the four must-have vaccinations, the card lists suggested “Talking Points with Patients.” These are especially helpful as they can help you explain to older patients why it’s imperative that they get vaccinated. The AGS Foundation for Health in Aging’s (FHA) free, easy-to-read immunization and H1N1 “tip sheets,”available at www.healthinaging.org/public_education/vaccination_tipsheet.php and www.healthinaging.org/public_education/H1N1_swine FLU_tips.php, offer similar information in a particularly patient-friendly format. I urge you to copy and share them with your patients and their caregivers.

Please click here to download the AGS Pocket Guide, pg. 1 (PDF)

Please click here to download the AGS Pocket Guide, pg. 2 (PDF)

Dr. Spivack is Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY; Consultant in Geriatric Medicine, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, CT; and Medical Director, LifeCare, Inc., Westport, CT.