Pneumococcal vaccination linked to fewer deaths in older adults
Vaccination was associated with 43.1% lower overall mortality relative to no vaccination among 453,500 adults aged 60 and older.
Limit: Unrecorded smoking and disease severity could inflate the apparent reduction in deaths
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers in Guangzhou, China, studied 453,500 adults aged 60 and older in a retrospective observational cohort using existing health surveillance records. They compared recipients of a pneumococcal vaccine covering 23 bacterial types with unvaccinated people. They matched the groups on age, sex, location, urbanization and flu vaccination status.
Over an average follow-up of 5.61 years, deaths from any cause occurred at rates of 3.93 per 1,000 person-years among vaccinated people and 9.57 among unvaccinated people. Person-years combine the number of people followed with their follow-up time. Vaccination was also associated with 46.2% lower pneumonia-related mortality and 33.5% lower mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a long-term lung disease that restricts airflow. These figures describe relative associations.
Why it matters
Preventing pneumonia-related deaths is an important question for health in later life. The authors recommended continued pneumococcal vaccination and combined flu–pneumococcal vaccination strategies.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish causation, and its findings concern adults aged 60 and older in Guangzhou, not younger people. The authors urged caution about overall mortality: pneumonia- and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-related deaths accounted for only 14.9% of the observed absolute reduction in deaths.
From the paper
- Participants
After 1:1 PSM, 453,500 participants (matching rate: 69.41%) were included, yielding 226,750 individuals in each of the PPSV23-vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
- Follow-up
Over a mean follow-up of 5.61 years, this corresponds to approximately 31.6, 3.3, and 1.3 fewer deaths per 1000 vaccinated individuals, respectively.
- Result
… the multivariable time-dependent Cox model revealed that PPSV23 vaccination was associated with a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 0.57; VE = 43.1%; 95% CI: 41.2–45.0%; p < 0.001) (Table 2).
Results, 3.2.2. Association of PPSV23 with All-Cause Mortality
Quoted word for word from the full text on mdpi.com.
- 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine
- Influenza vaccine
- Pneumonia
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Circulatory diseases
- Humans
The paper
Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Vaccines, Oct 2, 2026, Open access
