Adverse events following immunization against influenza the in elderly in Brazil

Abstract

To identify and analyze the occurrence of adverse events after vaccination against influenza in Brazilian elderly. Descriptive, analytical, retrospective and quantitative research on 98 elderly people identified through post-vaccination adverse event reporting forms provided by the Post-Vaccination Adverse Events Information System of Minas Gerias, Brazil, between 2014 and 2016. Data were double-entered and transferred to the software Ri386 version 3.4.3 3 IBM SPSS Statics version 25. Descriptive statistics, frequency and percentages were used for qualitative variables, and measures of central tendency (mean and median) and dispersion (standard deviation) were used for numerical variables. In order to verify the association between the types of events (non-severe, severe and immunization error) and systemic manifestations with elderly and vaccine characterization variables, Fisher's exact and Chi-square tests were used; the significance level was p <0.05. Of the elderly studied, 75.5% were female, predominantly Caucasian (55.1%), whose age ranged from 60 to 97 years; 84.7% of adverse events were described as non-adverse events, with local manifestations in 64.3% and systemic manifestations in 27.6%. Providing specific information to nurses regarding pre- and post-vaccination care against influenza is highly relevant for establishing adequate care that is harmless to the elderly and that lead to avoidable adverse events.