title: Vaccination of health care workers to protect patients at increased risk for acute respiratory disease.
abstract: Health care workers (HCWs) may transmit respiratory infection to patients. We assessed evidence for the effectiveness of vaccinating HCWs to provide indirect protection for patients at risk for severe or complicated disease after acute respiratory infection. We searched electronic health care databases and sources of gray literature by using a predefined strategy. Risk for bias was assessed by using validated tools, and results were synthesized by using a narrative approach. Seventeen of the 12,352 identified citations met the full inclusion criteria, and 3 additional articles were identified from reference or citation tracking. All considered influenza vaccination of HCWs, and most were conducted in long-term residential care settings. Consistency in the direction of effect was observed across several different outcome measures, suggesting a likely protective effect for patients in residential care settings. However, evidence was insufficient for us to confidently extrapolate this to other at-risk patient groups.
authors: University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. gayle.dolan@hpa.org.uk
authors: Gayle P
authors: GP
authors: Dolan
authors: Rebecca C
authors: RC
authors: Harris
authors: Mandy
authors: M
authors: Clarkson
authors: Rachel
authors: R
authors: Sokal
authors: Gemma
authors: G
authors: Morgan
authors: Mitsuru
authors: M
authors: Mukaigawara
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Horiuchi
authors: Rachel
authors: R
authors: Hale
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Stormont
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Béchard-Evans
authors: Yi-Sheng
authors: YS
authors: Chao
authors: Sergey
authors: S
authors: Eremin
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Martins
authors: John S
authors: JS
authors: Tam
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: Peñalver
authors: Arina
authors: A
authors: Zanuzdana
authors: Arina
authors: A
authors: Zanuzadana
authors: Jonathan S
authors: JS
authors: Nguyen-Van-Tam
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D017757:Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012306:Risk; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines