Routine vaccinations offered to adults may help protect against dementia, recent research has shown.
A joint Italian-Canadian neuroscience review, which analysed more than 100 million people, revealed both flu and shingles vaccines are associated with a lower risk of dementia in adults aged 50 and older. The herpes zoster (shingles) jab was associated with a 24 per cent lower risk of any dementia, and a 47 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Public health experts say the study, published in the Age and Ageing Journal last year, indicates a pattern which is becoming difficult to dismiss.
This could suggest vaccines against common infections may be quietly delivering long-term protection against the condition, which continues to be the leading cause of death in the UK.
With an ageing global population, the prevalence of dementia is projected to escalate dramatically, with an estimated two million people expected to be living with dementia in the UK by 2050.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and former chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told The Times: “Vaccines for pneumonia, shingles, and influenza in older adults have been shown to reduce the risk of serious infections and hospitalisation caused by these diseases.
“But studies in the past few years have raised the intriguing possibility that vaccination could also provide a welcome reduction in the risk of dementia, a disease which places a huge burden on society and the NHS.”
Some critics argued other external factors were not considered in the review, including the “healthy user effect”, where those who choose to get vaccinated already tend to be more aware of issues surrounding personal health.
However, other studies carried out have sought to mitigate this. A large-scale randomised medical trial in Wales, where people were offered either Zostavax or Shingrix, one of two shingles vaccines. Both being shingles vaccines, the “healthy user effect” no longer applies, as both groups in the study were actively seeking the vaccine.
The results showed those who received the Shingrix vaccine, which is a newer vaccine, had a substantially lower risk of developing dementia over subsequent years.
Dr Maxime Taquet, clinical lecturer in psychiatry at Oxford, who led the second study, said: “The size and nature of this study makes these findings convincing, and should motivate further research.
“They support the hypothesis that vaccination against shingles might prevent dementia. If validated in clinical trials, these findings could have significant implications for older adults, health services, and public health.”
Shingles vaccines are freely available to anyone above the age of 65 through the NHS.
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