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Article History

Received: 22 July 2020

Accepted: 22 November 2020

First Online: 30 November 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study protocol, observational in design and using retrospective anonymized non-identifiable data transferred from the Valencia Ministry of Health to the research team according to the Spanish laws and institutional requirements, was approved by the Ethics Committee of Dirección General de Salud Pública / Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CEIC DGSP-CSISP). The Valencia Health System Data Commission [CitationRef removed] granted permission for the transfer of specific anonymized data for the study development. Additionally, being that it is a retrospective study with 6 years of study period (2009–2014), it would have been not possible to get individual informed consent from the whole population studied (more than 4 million inhabitants). Based on Helsinki’s Declaration (principle 32) and the Law of Biomedical Reseach in Spain (Art. 58.2), the Ethics Committee accepted the exemption.

: Not Applicable.

: JDD and his institution received research grants from GSK and SPMSD related to HZ vaccine. He also acted as advisor for these vaccines to GSK and SPMSD. CMQ, AOS and MLL have attended to several congresses whose registration, travel and accommodation costs have been covered by GSK and SPMSD.