Functional disability and antibody response to influenza vaccine in elderly patients in a Dutch nursing home

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Abstract
Influenza vaccine was offered to all of the patients in one nursing home in Delft, the Netherlands, who were not terminally ill. A total of 175 patients gave their informed consent and were included in the study. Their mean age was 82 (SD 7), and 133 patients were women. The study was approved by the medical faculty ethics committee. Activities of daily living, illness, and drug treatment at the time of vaccination were recorded from multidisciplinary patient files. Activities of daily living were assessed according to the questionnaire of Katz et al3 (six items), with higher scores indicating greater dependency (bottom third 0-6, middle third 7-9, and top third 10-12 points). The mean score was 8 (3).