TUESDAY, May 4, 2010 (HealthDay News) -- Being vaccinated against pneumonia doesn't reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke in men older than 45, a new study finds.
The research included more than 84,000 men, ages 45 to 69, who enrolled in the California Men's Health Study between January 2002 and December 2003 and were followed until Dec. 31, 2007.
During the follow-up, there were 1,211 first heart attacks among men who'd received pneumococcal vaccine (rate of 10.7 per 1,000 person-years) and 1,494 first heart attacks among men who hadn't received the vaccine (6.07 per 1,000 person-years).
There were 651 strokes among vaccinated men (5.3 per 1,000 person-years) and 483 strokes among unvaccinated men (1.9 per 1,000 person-years).
The data suggests no association between pneumococcal vaccination and reduced risk of heart attack or stroke, concluded the researchers.
"In addition, association was not observed either in the current smokers, men with history of diabetes, men with history of hypertension, or men of the low-risk group," wrote Hung Fu Tseng, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, and colleagues.
The study is published in the May 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
More information
The Immunization Action Coalition has more about pneumococcal vaccine.
