Vanderbilt MPH’s Schaffner: Disparities in influenza outcomes
Influenza infections kill between 3,000 and 49,000 people each year in the United States. Understanding risk factors for severe influenza outcomes, such as hospitalization, can help guide vaccination programs and reduce disease burden.Rameela Chandrasekhar, Ph.D., and colleagues evaluated whether neighborhood determinants – represented by census tract data – contribute to the risk of influenza hospitalization. They analyzed 33,515 laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalizations from 14 sites over a 5-year period and found that both individual (age, race, ethnicity) and census tract-based factors were associated with hospitalization for influenza.
Vanderbilt investigators who participated in the research included Edward Mitchel, Danielle Ndi, Tiffanie Markus, Ph.D., William Schaffner, M.D., and Mary Lou Lindegren, M.D., MPH.