Unique study provides strong support for use of vaccine boosters in nursing homes
A UNIQUE Irish study involving Tallaght University Hospital sheds new light on long-term SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responses in older nursing home residents, it has been claimed.
The new research examined levels of Covid-19 antibodies both before vaccination and at five weeks and six months after nursing home residents received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The study team, which includes immunologists, geriatricians and nurses from Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and Trinity College, believe that the research provides strong support for the use of vaccine boosters in this age group.
According to the results, a person’s previous Covid-19 infection, their age and degree of frailty were all associated with six-month antibody levels post-vaccine.
While antibody levels declined over time, this decline was ‘particularly striking’ in individuals with no previous evidence of SARS-CoV2 infection.
However, the research highlighted that while previous infection was associated with ‘much greater levels’ of anti-spike antibodies at six months, increasing age and greater levels of frailty were independently associated with lower antibody levels.
The study, which was carried out through existing links between Age-Related Healthcare in TUH and five local nursing homes, has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
Professor Sean Kennelly, Consultant Geriatrician at TUH and Clinical Associate Professor in Trinity’s School of Medicine, was one of the Principal Investigators in the study, called NH-COVAIR.
He said: “The NH-COVAIR study is an important piece of research that provides support for the use of COVID-19 vaccine boosters in nursing home residents to prevent serious illness.
“Nursing home residents are frequently excluded from translational research, but as we know they are the population at greatest risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 illness.”
Lead author on the study, Dr Adam Dyer, Specialist Registrar in Geriatric Medicine and Irish Clinical Academic Training Fellow at TUH and Trinity, reiterated Prof Kennelly’s comments.
“Our findings demonstrating lower antibody levels in SARS-CoV-2-naïve individuals [people with no previous evidence of infection] and in those with increasing age and frailty tell only part of the story, but they support the ongoing use of vaccine boosters in this vulnerable population,” Dr Dyer said.
The research team noted that the study only considered anti-spike antibody levels and did not examine long term ‘memory’ immune cells and the ability of these to fight off future infection – an area of ongoing research for the team.
