Assessment of Symptoms Succeeding COVID-19 Vaccination in Health Care Workers of Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: We aimed to evaluate the duration and severity of symptoms experienced by Health care workers (HCWs) after receiving first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and to compare these symptoms with respect to age, gender, previous infection with COVID-19 and history of allergies.

Methods: Data for this cross-sectional analytical study was collected using simple random sampling by filling a proforma after detailed in person interview of the selected HCWs of Rawalpindi Medical University between May 2021 to September 2021. However, those HCWs who had co-morbidities were excluded from the study.

Results: A total of 350 participants were interviewed and data was analyzed by SPSS 25. Out of 350 participants 205 (58.6%) experienced symptom after receiving the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Most common symptom was local pain at injection site (58%). Other symptoms include fatigue(41.5%) ,myalgia(33.2%) ,low grade fever (28.8%), headache(26.8%) ,high grade fever(6.3%),joint pain(7.8%), Giddiness(5.4%), sore throat(5.9%),nausea (4.9%), diarrhea(2%) ,constipation(1.5%), insomnia(1%), allergic rash(1.5%).Women were likely to experience more symptoms as well as earlier onset of symptoms. Older age was related to late appearance and longer duration of symptoms. People who have earlier been infected with COVID-19 were likely to experience more severe symptoms. Those having previous history of any allergies were more likely to experience post-vaccination symptoms. All these results were statistically significant with p value less than 0.05.

Conclusion: Two-thirds of healthcare professionals who completed the survey reported mild and short- lived symptoms. These symptoms are the local and systemic manifestations of immunogenicity and reactogenicity of vaccines. No serious adverse event was reported hence further supporting the evidence for safety of these vaccines.