What Older Adults Should Know About Vaccines

August marks National Immunization Awareness Month, and it’s a perfect opportunity to make sure your vaccines are up to date to protect you against serious illness. It may surprise you to learn that 42,000 adults die each year in the U.S. due to vaccine-preventable illnesses. 1 Older adults are especially vulnerable to complications from several vaccine-preventable diseases.

Several vaccinations are recommended for older adults. We’ll go over each one, and the disease they prevent, in detail. With an understanding of these illnesses and vaccines, you can be proactive and protect yourself or your loved ones.

Why are vaccines important for older adults?

As we age, changes in our immune system make us more vulnerable to disease. And older adults are often more likely to live with chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, COPD, and others. These chronic diseases can cause serious complications when someone is infected with a vaccine-preventable illness.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases lists nine reasons vaccines are important for older adults: 2

Vaccine-preventable diseases are still a threat
Vaccines are safe
Vaccination can save your life
Vaccines can keep you healthier
Vaccines are as important to health as diet and exercise
Vaccines cannot cause the diseases they prevent
Vaccine-preventable diseases are costly
People who get sick can spread disease to their families
If you’re sick, you can’t care for people who are counting on you

What vaccines are recommended for older adults?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the following vaccines for older adults: 3

Seasonal influenza (flu) vaccine
Td or Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis)
Hepatitis B vaccine for all adults up to age 59, and high-risk adults 60 and older
Shingles vaccine for all adults age 50 and older
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV15, PCV20, and/or PPSV23) for all adults 65 and older
COVID-19 vaccine

Let’s take a closer look at each of these vaccines and the diseases they help to prevent.

Influenza vaccine

Older adults are especially vulnerable to complications of the flu, including pneumonia and death. Every year in the US, older adults make up 90% of flu-related deaths and 50-70% of flu-related hospitalizations. 4

The National Institute on Aging recommends that older adults get a flu vaccine each year by the end of October. 5 This is because the flu circulates most widely in the fall and winter, and each year a different strain is dominant. There are two high-dose flu vaccines formulated for older adults, so be sure to ask your doctor about what they recommend for you.

Td or Tdap vaccine

The Td or Tdap vaccine is recommended for all adults every 10 years, and this includes adults age 65 and older. It protects against 3 different diseases: 6

Tetanus- this disease causes muscle pain and stiffness and difficulty swallowing, opening the mouth, and breathing. It can lead to death.

Diphtheria- complications include trouble breathing, paralysis, heart failure, and death.

Pertussis- also called whooping cough, pertussis causes severe coughing that affects eating, breathing, and drinking. Adults may also experience loss of bladder control, fainting, weight loss, or even rib fractures from violent coughing spells.

Hepatitis B vaccine

Hepatitis B is one of several viral hepatitis infections that can cause serious health problems. Around 2 in 3 people infected with hepatitis B don’t know they are infected, and it can be spread through sexual contact, blood, and bodily fluids. It is a leading cause of liver cancer. 7

The hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for all adults up to age 59, and any adults age 60 and up who are at high risk for hepatitis B infection. Your doctor can tell you if you are at high risk, and whether you should get the hepatitis B vaccine.

Shingles vaccine

Shingles, or herpes zoster virus, is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Older adults who had chickenpox earlier in life can develop shingles when the dormant (sleeping) virus in their body reactivates. This is more common as people age, and nearly 1 in 3 adults will experience shingles. 8

Shingles causes a painful rash and blisters on the skin. It can also cause headaches, fever and chills, and upset stomach. Rarely, people can have serious problems due to shingles including pneumonia, blindness, hearing problems, brain inflammation, and death. 9

The most common complication of shingles is postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN, and it primarily affects people age 60 and older. 10 PHN causes severe skin discomfort where the shingles rash first appeared, and can last for months.

The shingles vaccine is recommended for adults age 50 and over and is given in a two-dose series.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine

According to the CDC, around 320,000 people get pneumococcal pneumonia every year, with 150,000 of them ending up in the hospital and 5,000 deaths, mostly in older adults. 11

Pneumococcal disease is caused by several strains of bacteria. Along with pneumonia, it can cause ear infections, sinus infections, bacteremia (a blood infection), and meningitis (infection of the tissue surrounding the spinal cord and brain). 12

Several kinds of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are available, depending on your age and medical history. PCV15, PCV20, and PPSV23 may all be given to older adults. Your doctor can recommend the best combination to protect you from pneumococcal disease. The CDC recommends the vaccine for all adults age 65 and older.

COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 has dominated the conversation on vaccines and illness in the past two years, and for older adults, this is an especially important topic: although adults age 65 and older make up 16% of the US population, 80% of COVID-19 deaths are in this group of people. 13

Adults age 65 and older who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with mRNA vaccines (either Pfizer or Moderna) have a 94% reduced risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19. 14

How older adults can keep track of their vaccine status

It’s easy to lose track of your current vaccination status, and many older adults may find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, some vaccines were overlooked. Having a conversation with your doctor is a good starting point to find out what vaccines you’ve already had, and which ones they recommend you have now.

It can be helpful to keep a current record of your vaccines so that you always know what you are due for. There are a few ways you can do this. The CDC recommends using this form, and you can ask your doctor if they can print a current vaccination status for you to keep on file at home.

Some providers participate in computerized vaccine databases called Immunization Information Systems, which can also help to store your vaccine information. And finally, there are multiple apps available for keeping your health information stored on your phone and easily accessible.

Vaccines are an important part of healthy aging

Understanding the vaccine-preventable illnesses discussed above is important to your overall health. There are many steps older adults can take to make sure that they are supporting healthy aging, and vaccines are one of those steps.

Making sure you are current on vaccines can be a part of routine visits to the doctor. Sometimes, these visits can feel short, and you may have many questions you want to be sure to address with your doctor. It can be easy to forget to mention vaccines. You may find it helpful to make a list of the important questions you want to ask your doctor, and include vaccines so that you don’t lose track of this topic.

If you have a support person that comes with you to your regular checkups, be sure you mention your vaccine status to them too, so they can help you remember to discuss them with your doctor. This can include any caregivers that are a part of your daily care.

For help getting to your regular doctor visits and keeping up to date on your vaccines, Caresify’s professional caregivers are available to assist with transportation and other activities of daily living. You can learn more here, or call 888-799-5007.

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