Demographic and clinical characteristics of primary care patients vaccinated against COVID-19 in spring 2021.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the age distribution and comorbidities of individuals vaccinated in primary care practices in April and May 2021. The analysis was based on data from the IQVIA Disease Analyzer database and included 245,948 patients who received their first COVID-19 vaccination from one of 820 family medicine practices in April or May 2021. 93.6% of individuals received a vaccination based on general indication, 6.2% based on occupational indication, and 0.2% were nursing home residents. Men were 3.5 years younger on average than women (59.2 vs. 62.7 years). 54% of women and 52% of men younger than 60 years had at least one diagnosis from the priority list. Hypertension was the most common diagnosis (23.6% of men and 20.7% of women). In men, chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD or asthma were the second most common diagnosis (11.0%), while in women, depression (17.0%) was the second most common diagnosis. In the first 2 months of vaccination in general practices, most patients vaccinated were either elderly or chronically ill. Further studies comparing the characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals would also be of great epidemiological relevance.