SummaryA first infection with the varicella zoster virus manifests as chickenpox, after which the virus remains hibernated" in nerve cells in the body and can break out occasionally to cause shingles. The virus has recently been implicated in a variety of health outcomes related to inflammation of blood vessels. In a first step of this project, we want to investigate how herpes zoster infections and respective vaccinations correlate with health outcomes. To account for non-random herpes zoster infections and vaccine uptake, we plan to use multivariate regressions while conditioning on a large set of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. In addition, we aim to use various matching methods to control more accurately for further confounders.

Keywords health herpes-zoster-infection vaccination

InstitutionsUniversität Heidelberg, Stanford University, Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, HIGH - Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, University Hospital Heidelberg, Institute of Global Health (HIGH)