Getting annual flu shots decrease illness rates in College students

A new study finds that getting annual flu shots can decrease the risk for disease, hospital visits and school interruptions in college students.

In this study, the researchers studied student of Minnesota University and VA Medical Center campuses during 2002-06 flu seasons.

The background information in 12,975 students study, the researchers found that every year 9% to 20% students got the infection. Among them 30.2% had got a flu shot. The researchers found that the students who had got flu shot had a considerably lower risk of getting illness than those who didn’t get flu shot.

“Vaccination proved quite effective in reducing other flu-related problems like health-care visits, use of antibiotic, poor performance in school and other school interruptions like missing class, missing work or day spent on the bed during the flu season ,” Dr. Kristin L. Nichol’ who led the study, says.

After averaging these findings for all these flu seasons, the researchers found that: Those who got vaccine had considerably low risk of becoming the victim of flu-related problems like missing classes, missing work or taking bed rest.

The study has been published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Dec. issue.