Self-Reported Adverse Events of COVID-19 Vaccines in Polish Healthcare Workers and Medical Students. Cross-Sectional Study and Pooled Analysis of CoVaST Project Results in Central Europe.

Arkadiusz Dziedzic,Abanoub Riad,Marta Tanasiewicz,Sameh Attia,Miloslav Klugar

doi:10.3390/jcm10225338

Abstract

Background: Optimization of COVID-19 vaccination rate among healthcare personnel is of utmost priority to secure provision of uninterrupted care and to protect the most vulnerable patients. This study, as part of the global CoVaST project, aimed to assess the occurrence of short-term adverse events (SRAEs) of two most administered COVID-19 vaccines, mRNA-based (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) and viral vector-based (AstraZeneca) in healthcare sector workers (HWs). Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was carried out for the first time among 317 Polish healthcare sector personnel and medical students using a validated and pre-tested questionnaire. The online questionnaire included 25 pre-tested, validated questions concerning demographic data, medical parameters, COVID-19-related anamneses, and local or systemic reactions (reactogenicity) associated with COVID-19 vaccination. Descriptive statistics, inferential tests and binary logistic regression were performed. Results: Out of the 247 participating HWs, 79.8% were females, and 77.5% received mRNA-based vaccines, while 24.5% received a viral vector-based vaccine. Cumulatively, 78.9% and 60.7% of the participants reported at least one local and one systemic SRAE respectively, following their COVID-19 first or second dose of vaccine. A wide array of SRAEs was observed, while pain at injection site (76.9%) was the most common local SRAE, and fatigue (46.2%), headache (37.7%), muscle pain (31.6%) were the most common systemic SRAEs. The vast proportion of local (35.2%) and systemic (44.8%) SRAEs subsided up to 1 day after inoculation with both types of vaccines. The mRNA-based vaccine versions seem to cause higher prevalence of local SRAEs, mainly pain within injection site (81.3% vs. 71.7%; p = 0.435), while the viral vector-based vaccine was linked with increased incidents of mild systemic side effects (76.7% vs. 55.3%; p = 0.004) after both doses. Pooled analysis revealed uniform results while comparing the prevalence of SRAEs in HWs as recipients in four central European countries (OR = 2.38; 95% CI = 2.03–2.79). Conclusions: The study confirmed the safety of commonly administered vaccines against COVID-19, which were associated with mild, self-resolving adverse events. No major vaccine-related incidents were reported which would affect every day functioning, significantly. The younger age group (below 29 y.o.) were associated with an increased risk of adverse events generally. The results enhanced current data regarding COVID-19 vaccination active surveillance in selected occupational groups.

Highlights

Public health experts, regulatory authorities, and advisory governmental bodies have been considering compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for eligible healthcare workers (HWs), including permanent and temporary personnel [1]
A total of 315 respondents accessed the digital questionnaire and provided their consent to participate, while 68 of them were excluded for various reasons; 8 were not vaccinated, 39 withdrew before answering any question, and 21 did not answer the required questions concerning COVID-19 short-term adverse events (SRAEs)
Only 247 participants were included in the final analyses and they were divided into two main groups; recipients of mRNA-based vaccine recipients (179 recipients of BNT162b2, commonly known as Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and 8 recipients of mRNA-1273 commonly known as Moderna COVID-19 vaccine) and recipients of viral vector-based vaccine recipients (58 recipients of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, commonly known as AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, and 2 recipients of Ad26.COV2.S, commonly known as Janssen COVID-19 vaccine)

Summary

Introduction

Regulatory authorities, and advisory governmental bodies have been considering compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for eligible healthcare workers (HWs), including permanent and temporary personnel [1]. Maximization of the COVID-19 vaccination rate in HWs and, students attending Medical schools is deemed to be an evidence-based, rational process of public health agendas [2]. The awareness of the importance of vaccination programs in HWs groups influences their attitude towards public health preventive measures, reducing the risk of serious medical incidents. This seems plausible when predicting a long-term anti-COVID-19 strategy involving subsequent doses of booster vaccines in the future [4]

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Conclusion