US study finds children born in October least likely to get the flu

Children born in October are both more likely to be vaccinated against the flu and less likely to be diagnosed with the flu compared to children born in other months, according to a US study published by The BMJ.

The results suggest that month of birth is associated with both the timing of influenza vaccination and the likelihood of an influenza diagnosis, and that October is the optimal time for young children to receive influenza vaccination. influenza, in accordance with current recommendations.

Annual flu vaccination is especially important for young children, who are at higher risk of flu and serious infection requiring hospitalization. Vaccination is recommended in September or October to maximize immunity during peak flu season.

In the United States, preventive care visits among young children tend to occur during the birth months and are a good time to receive the flu vaccine, but large-scale studies of the optimal timing of vaccination vaccinations are not available.

To address this issue, researchers set out to evaluate the optimal timing of influenza vaccination in young children.

Using health insurance claims data, they identified more than 800,000 children aged 2 to 5 who received a flu vaccine between August 1 and January 31 between 2011 and 2018. They then analyzed the rates of flu diagnosed in these children by month of birth.

After taking into account a range of potentially influential factors such as age, gender, existing conditions, health care use and family size, the results show that October was the most common month for that children are vaccinated.

Children born in October also had the lowest rate of flu diagnoses. For example, among children born in August, the average flu diagnosis rate during the flu seasons studied was 3%, compared to 2.7% for children born in October and 2.9% for those born in December.

This is an observational study and the authors acknowledge that their findings are limited to insured children who received medical care. They also cannot rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors may have influenced their results.

Nonetheless, the results were similar after additional analyzes to assess whether the relationship between month of birth and flu risk was due to chance, providing greater confidence in their findings.

“Our results suggest that US public health interventions focused on vaccinating young children in October may provide the best protection during typical influenza seasons,” they say.

“The results of the study are consistent with current recommendations favoring vaccination in October,” they add.