NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – While influenzavaccination does provide protection against catching the flu, itdoes not have a major impact on death in the elderly, contrary towhat some studies have suggested, a new study suggests.

In prior studies, an impressive 50 percent reduction in deathfrom any cause had been noted in elderly people who got a flu shot,but some researchers were skeptical of this degree of benefit,suggesting that it may have been the result of the “healthy usereffect.” The new study supports this line of thinking.

The study included more than 700 elderly people, half of whomhad gotten a flu shot and half of whom had not. After controllingfor a variety of factors that were largely not considered or simplynot available in previous studies, the researchers concluded thatany death benefit “if present at all, was very small andstatistically non-significant and may simply be a healthy-userartifact that they were unable to identify.”