Peer-reviewed article
Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against Influenza-like Illness in Post-Operative Children with Congenital Heart Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting.
Rui Liu, Pengfei Deng, Tian Yang, Yun Pan, Zhuoming Xu et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how well influenza vaccination protects children with congenital heart disease after surgery from influenza-like illness in Shanghai, China. Researchers followed 194 children, of whom 21.6% were vaccinated, and used statistical methods to account for differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. The vaccine provided moderate protection, reducing the risk of influenza-like illness by about 51%, similar to protection seen in healthy children.
Key points
- Vaccination coverage among post-operative children with congenital heart disease was only 21.6%
- Influenza vaccine effectiveness was 50.9% (95% CI: 11.0–72.9%) against medically attended influenza-like illness
- Sensitivity analyses confirmed robust protection, with effectiveness estimates ranging from 49.6% to 56.6%
- The protection was comparable to that seen in healthy pediatric populations
- This is among the first real-world vaccine effectiveness data from China for this vulnerable population
Limitations
The study is retrospective and relatively small (194 children), which limits generalisability. The data come from only one city in China and cover only a six-month period, so results may not apply to other regions or seasons.
Abstract
Background: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are highly vulnerable to influenza, yet real-world vaccine effectiveness (VE) data in this post-operative population are lacking, especially in China. This study estimated influenza VE against medically attended influenza-like illness (ILI) in post-operative children with CHD using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to address confounding. Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 194 children who underwent CHD surgery in Shanghai (January-July 2023). Vaccination records were obtained from the Shanghai Immunization Information System, and ILI episodes were captured via structured interviews. The primary analysis used doubly robust quasi-Poisson regression on an IPTW pseudo-population. VE = (1 - RR) × 100%. Sensitivity analyses included multivariable Poisson regression, marginal structural models, and stabilized IPTW. Results: Vaccination coverage was 21.6% (42/194). After IPTW, all covariates were well-balanced (SMD < 0.10). The primary VE was 50.9% (95% CI: 11.0-72.9%). Sensitivity estimates ranged from 49.6% to 56.6%. Subgroup analyses showed consistently protective point estimates. Conclusions: Influenza vaccination provided moderate, robust protection (≈51% VE) against ILI in post-operative CHD children, comparable to healthy pediatric populations. Our results reinforce the urgent need to prioritize influenza immunization in this vulnerable group and offer critical baseline data for China.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Influenza vaccination
- Population
- 194 post-operative children with congenital heart disease in Shanghai, China (January–July 2023); 21.6% were vaccinated
Key finding
Primary vaccine effectiveness was 50.9% (95% CI: 11.0–72.9%) against medically attended influenza-like illness