Vince Mor, PhD, one of IMPACT Collaboratory’s two Principal Investigators, and team recently shared results from their investigation into the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among nursing home residents from 280 nursing homes in 21 states. Results were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on April 16th.
Researchers partnered with Genesis Healthcare, the largest long-term care provider in the country, for the study, which was a supplement award through the IMPACT Collaboratory. They monitored the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine rollout among nursing home residents in 280 nursing homes within 21 states. Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were included in the study. Researchers created two groups of participating facilities based on the date of their initial vaccine clinic and conducted a matched pair analysis of outcomes.
One week after their initial vaccine clinics, nursing homes with earlier clinics had 2.5 fewer new SARS‐CoV‐2 infections per 100 at‐risk residents than expected based on the experiences of matched facilities with later clinics. Cumulatively over 7 weeks, earlier vaccinated facilities had 5.2 fewer infections per 100 at‐risk residents and 5 fewer hospitalizations and/or deaths per 100 infected residents than expected without vaccinations. These results indicate that the vaccine led to a reduction in incident infections, morbidity, and mortality in this large multi-state nursing home population.
The researchers also suggested the findings support efforts to begin resuming family visitation and lessen other restrictions in nursing homes.