THURSDAY, May 8, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Live zoster vaccination is associated with a lower risk for overall cardiovascular events when compared with no vaccination, according to a study published online May 5 in the European Heart Journal.

Sooji Lee, from the Kyung Hee University Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues conducted a large-scale cohort study with long-term follow-up to examine the association between live zoster vaccination and the risk for various cardiovascular events. The risk for incident cardiovascular outcomes was assessed for individuals aged 50 years or older who had undergone live zoster vaccination versus unvaccinated individuals. After applying propensity score-based overlap weighting, data were included for 1,271,922 individuals, with a median follow-up of 6.0 years.

The researchers found associations for live zoster vaccination with lower risks for overall cardiovascular events (hazard ratio [HR], 0.77), especially major adverse cardiovascular events, heart failure, cerebrovascular disorders, ischemic heart disease, thrombotic disorders, and dysrhythmia (HRs, 0.74, 0.74, 0.76, 0.78, 0.78, and 0.79, respectively). The restricted mean survival time difference was 95.14 days per decade for overall cardiovascular events following live zoster vaccination. The protective association lasted for up to eight years, with the reduction greatest at two to three years postvaccination. Men, those aged younger than 60 years, those with unhealthy lifestyle habits, and those from low-income households and rural residents had a more pronounced decrease in cardiovascular disease risk.

“The findings suggest that implementing live zoster vaccination strategies may be associated with favorable cardiovascular outcomes across different population groups,” the authors write.

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