Large-scale clinical trials support the use of high-dose vaccination for influenza to reduce hospitalization for cardiorespiratory disease in older adults and to improve outcomes in patients who have been hospitalized for acute heart failure. These findings were presented at the ESC Congress 2025.
In the similarly designed GALFLU trial conducted between 2023 and 2025 in Galicia, Spain, a total of 103,169 adults aged 65–79 years were randomly assigned to receive a high-dose or standard-dose influenza vaccine. The absolute risk of a primary end point event (the same as in the DANFLU-2 trial) was 0.25% in the high-dose group compared with 0.34% in the standard-dose group (relative vaccine effectiveness 23.7%, 95% CI 6.6–37.3). A lower-than-expected incidence of influenza meant that the number of cases needed to perform statistical testing was not reached.
