Marital Status, Bereavement Influence Flu Shot's Effectiveness in Elderly

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Phillips acknowledged that it's difficult to change someone's bereavement or marital status. But measures to help people cope more effectively with bereavement (such as counseling), or marital interventions to help increase marital satisfaction and happiness (such as communication training) could improve an individual's emotional and physical well-being, she said.

But Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and the author of False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear, suggested that the study's premise may not be definitive.

"I would say that there's a definite interplay between stress and an immune response," said Siegel. "But it's a very different proposition to identify what kind of stress has what effect."

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"For example, my research has shown that prolonged chronic worry may diminish an immune response while temporary excitement might augment it," Siegel added. "So it's confusing, because it's not necessarily a linear connection. And I would want to see a lot more research on this."

More information

For more on the flu vaccine, visit the National Institute on Aging (www.niapublications.org ).

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