Association of COVID-19 vaccination with risks of hospitalization due to cardiovascular and other diseases: A study using data from the UK Biobank

• Published in: International journal of infectious diseases Vol. 145; p. 107080
• Main Authors: Xiang, Yong, Feng, Yaning, Qiu, Jinghong, Zhang, Ruoyu, So, Hon-Cheong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aged; Biological Specimen Banks; BNT162 Vaccine - administration & dosage; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control; Cardiovascular risk; ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 vaccine; COVID-19 Vaccines - administration & dosage; COVID-19 Vaccines - adverse effects; Female; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; SARS-CoV-2; Stroke - epidemiology; Stroke - prevention & control; UK Biobank; United Kingdom - epidemiology; Vaccination; United Kingdom; COVID-19 vaccine; UK Biobank; Cardiovascular risk
• ISSN: 1201-9712; 1878-3511; 1878-3511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2024.107080

•COVID-19 vaccines may reduce hospitalization risks from several disorders.•Risk reduction was seen for stroke, heart failure, non-COVID-19 pneumonia, and dementia.•Moderate evidence of protection seen for coronary artery disease/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/diabetes.•Benefits of COVID-19 vaccines extend beyond reducing infection risk/severity per se. To explore whether COVID-19 vaccination protects against hospital admission by preventing infections and severe disease. We leveraged the UK Biobank and studied associations of COVID-19 vaccination (BioNTech-BNT162b2 or Oxford-AstraZeneca-ChAdOx1) with hospitalizations from cardiovascular and other selected diseases (N = 393,544; median follow-up = 54 days among vaccinated individuals). Multivariable Cox, Poisson regression, propensity score matching, and inverse probability treatment weighting analyses were performed. We also performed adjustment using prescription-time distribution matching, and prior event rate ratio. We observed that COVID-19 vaccination (at least one dose), compared with no vaccination, was associated with reduced short-term risks of hospitalizations from stroke (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.178, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.127-0.250, P = 1.50e-23), venous thromboembolism (HR = 0.426, CI: 0.270-0.673, P = 2.51e-4), dementia (HR = 0.114, CI: 0.060-0.216; P = 2.24e-11), non-COVID-19 pneumonia (HR = 0.108, CI: 0.080-0.145; P = 2.20e-49), coronary artery disease (HR = 0.563, CI: 0.416-0.762; P = 2.05e-4), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR = 0.212, CI: 0.126-0.357; P = 4.92e-9), type 2 diabetes (HR = 0.216, CI: 0.096-0.486, P = 2.12e-4), heart failure (HR = 0.174, CI: 0.118-0.256, P = 1.34e-18), and renal failure (HR = 0.415, CI: 0.255-0.677, P = 4.19e-4), based on standard Cox regression models. Among the previously mentioned results, reduced hospitalizations for stroke, heart failure, non-COVID-19 pneumonia, and dementia were consistently observed across regression, propensity score matching/inverse probability treatment weighting, prescription-time distribution matching, and prior event rate ratio. The results for two-dose vaccination were similar. Taken together, this study provides further support to the safety and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination, and such benefits may extend beyond reduction of infection risk or severity per se. However, causal relationship cannot be concluded and further studies are required. [Display omitted]