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© 1995 Oxford University Press

research-article

Tetanus Immunity in Elderly People

SUSAN M. MURPHY*, DEIRDRE M. HEGARTY, CONLETH S. FEIGHERY, J. BERNARD WALSH, YVONNE WILLIAMS and DAVIS P. COAKLEY

Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James Hospital James Street, Dublin 8, Ireland
Department of Immunology, St James's Hospital James's Street, Dublin 8, Ireland

*Address correspondence to Dr S. Murphy, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55902, USA

The aims of this study were to document the level of tetanus immunity in elderly people; to assess the value of immunization history in predicting tetanus immune status and to determine the response to tetanus immunization in elderly people compared with younger subjects. One-hundred day-hospital attenders (group 1), 100 long-term-care residents (group 2) and 50 young subjects (group 3) were recruited. Protective titres of tetanus antitoxin antibodies were detected in 20% of group 1, 45% of group 2 and 80% of group 3. Tetanus immunization history was a poor predictor of immune status in older people with a positive predictive value of 50% and a negative predictive value of 76%. The response to tetanus immunization was slower and of lower magnitude in older people. However, 36 of 37 older subjects developed protective levels of tetanus antitoxin antibodies on completion of a primary immunization programme.

Received June 10, 1994;
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