Immune Responses in Health Care Personnel

August 18, 2025 updated by: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Immune Responses to Influenza Vaccinations and Viruses Among Health Care Personnel

This is an investigator-initiated 10 year long open cohort observational study, aiming to increase the understanding of the humoral and cellular immunological mechanisms of vaccination against influenza, including effects of repeated vaccination, the duration of protection, immunity against circulating viruses, as well as factors affecting the immunological responses and immunity against other vaccine preventable infectious diseases among health care personnel.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Influenza vaccination is given according to the normal routine of Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) occupational health care. Blood samples will be collected before vaccination, 5 weeks after vaccination and 6 months after vaccination. Both the same participants and also new participants will be recruited each year. The analysis will be mainly descriptive.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

150

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

      • Helsinki, Finland
        • Recruiting
        • The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 64 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Health care professionals affiliated by HUS

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Members of health care or laboratory personnel in HUS having decided to take the seasonal influenza vaccination by the routine occupational health care service
  • General good health as established by or volunteer's own statement
  • Written informed consent
  • Presumably able and willing to participate in the study during the starting influenza season

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any confirmed or suspected immunosuppressive or immunodeficient condition, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
  • Administration (longer than 14 days) of immunosuppressants or other immune- modifying drugs within 6 months before the vaccination; oral corticosteroids in dosages of 20 mg/day or more prednisolone or equivalent are excluded; inhaled or topical steroids are allowed.
  • Pregnancy or lactation
  • Acute disease at the time of enrolment (defined as the presence of a moderate or severe illness with or without fever)
  • Contraindication for influenza vaccination
  • Any other criteria which, in the investigator's or dedicated study staff member's opinion, would compromise the ability of a subject to participate in the study, a subject's well-being, or the outcome of the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Influenza vaccine recipients
Health care workers vaccinated by their occupational health care according to the routine praxis.
Vaccine for prevention of influenza. Vaccines change by influenza season.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Humoral immunity against each present season's vaccine and circulating influenza strains
Time Frame: 10 years
The presence and titer of antibodies against circulating influenza virus strains and vaccine strains of the current season from pre- and post-vaccination serum samples
10 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Humoral immunity against previous seasons' vaccine and circulating influenza strains
Time Frame: 10 years
To assess the presence and titer of antibodies to circulating influenza strains and vaccine virus strains of previous seasons from pre- and post-vaccination serum samples
10 years
Cellular immunity against current and previous seasons' vaccine and circulating influenza strains
Time Frame: 10 years
The cellular immune responses to circulating influenza viruses and vaccine strains of the current and previous seasons from pre- and post-vaccination peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and cell culture supernatants
10 years
Effect of repeated vaccination against influenza
Time Frame: 10 years
The effect of the number of previous influenza vaccinations on the quality and quantity of Humoral and cellular immunity to circulating influenza strains and vaccine strains of the current and previous seasons
10 years

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Factors affecting humoral and/or cellular immune responses to influenza viruses or vaccination
Time Frame: 10 years
Exploration of biological or chemical factors that are/will be known or suspected to affect the humoral and/or cellular immune responses to influenza viruses or vaccination
10 years
Immunity against other microbes causing vaccine preventable diseases among health care workers
Time Frame: 10 years
Assessment of humoral and cellular immunity to microbes other than influenza virus causing vaccine preventable diseases
10 years
Developing methods to measure immunity against vaccine preventable diseases
Time Frame: 10 years
developing laboratory methodologies to assess immunity to influenza and other microbes causing vaccine preventable diseases
10 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Hanna Nohynek, MD, PhD, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 18, 2017

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 14, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 14, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 13, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 23, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

October 26, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 20, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 18, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • FinFLU_HCPimmu_2017THL

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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