The Association between Influenza Vaccine and Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease/Dialysis in Patients with Hypertension

Wen-Rui Hao; Tsung-Lin Yang; Yu-Hsin Lai; Kuan-Jie Lin; Yu-Ann Fang; Ming-Yao Chen; Min-Huei Hsu; Chun-Chih Chiu; Tsung-Yeh Yang; Chun-Chao Chen; Ju-Chi Liu

doi:10.3390/vaccines11061098

The Association between Influenza Vaccine and Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease/Dialysis in Patients with Hypertension

Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Jun 14;11(6):1098. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11061098.

Authors

Wen-Rui Hao^{1

2

3}, Tsung-Lin Yang^{2

3

4}, Yu-Hsin Lai^{5

6

7}, Kuan-Jie Lin^{2

8}, Yu-Ann Fang^{1

2}, Ming-Yao Chen^{5

6

7}, Min-Huei Hsu^{9

10}, Chun-Chih Chiu^{1

2}, Tsung-Yeh Yang^{1

2}, Chun-Chao Chen^{1

2

3

11}, Ju-Chi Liu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City 235, Taiwan.
² Taipei Heart Institute, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
³ Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
⁴ Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
⁵ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
⁶ TMU Research Center for Digestive Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
⁷ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei 235, Taiwan.
⁸ Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City 235, Taiwan.
⁹ Graduate Institute of Data Science, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Department of Neurosurgery, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City 235, Taiwan.
¹¹ Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Influenza vaccination could decrease the risk of major cardiac events in patients with hypertension. However, the vaccine's effects on decreasing the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) development in such patients remain unclear.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed the data of 37,117 patients with hypertension (≥55 years old) from the National Health Insurance Research Database during 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2012. After a 1:1 propensity score matching by the year of diagnosis, we divided the patients into vaccinated (n = 15,961) and unvaccinated groups (n = 21,156).

Results: In vaccinated group, significantly higher prevalence of comorbidities such as diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, dyslipidemia, heart and liver disease were observed compared with unvaccinated group. After adjusting age, sex, comorbidities, medications (anti-hypertensive agents, metformin, aspirin and statin), level of urbanization and monthly incomes, significantly lower risk of CKD occurrence was observed among vaccinated patients in influenza season, non-influenza season and all season (Adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.39, 95% confidence level [C.I.]: 0.33-0.46; 0.38, 95% C.I.: 0.31-0.45; 0.38, 95% C.I.: 0.34-0.44, respectively). The risk of hemodialysis significantly decreased after vaccination (aHR: 0.40, 95% C.I.: 0.30-0.53; 0.42, 95% C.I.: 0.31-0.57; 0.41, 95% C.I.: 0.33-0.51, during influenza season, non-influenza season and all season). In sensitivity analysis, patients with different sex, elder and non-elder age, with or without comorbidities and with or without medications had significant decreased risk of CKD occurrence and underwent hemodialysis after vaccination. Moreover, the potential protective effect appeared to be dose-dependent.

Conclusions: Influenza vaccination decreases the risk of CKD among patients with hypertension and also decrease the risk of receiving renal replacement therapy. Its potential protective effects are dose-dependent and persist during both influenza and noninfluenza seasons.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease; dialysis; hypertension; influenza vaccine.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan (DP2-111-21121-01-A-04), and the 112FRP-01-4 from the Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital.