Mental illness and COVID-19 vaccination: a multinational investigation of observational & register-based data

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 8124 - 13
• Main Authors: Barker, Mary M., Kõiv, Kadri, Magnúsdóttir, Ingibjörg, Milbourn, Hannah, Wang, Bin, Du, Xinkai, Murphy, Gillian, Herweijer, Eva, Gísladóttir, Elísabet U., Li, Huiqi, Lovik, Anikó, Kähler, Anna K., Campbell, Archie, Feychting, Maria, Hauksdóttir, Arna, Joyce, Emily E., Thordardottir, Edda Bjork, Frans, Emma M., Hoffart, Asle, Mägi, Reedik, Tómasson, Gunnar, Ásbjörnsdóttir, Kristjana, Jakobsdóttir, Jóhanna, Andreassen, Ole A., Sullivan, Patrick F., Johnson, Sverre Urnes, Aspelund, Thor, Brandlistuen, Ragnhild Eek, Ask, Helga, McCartney, Daniel L., Ebrahimi, Omid V., Lehto, Kelli, Valdimarsdóttir, Unnur A., Nyberg, Fredrik, Fang, Fang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26.09.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/699/476; 692/700/459/1748; 692/700/478/174; Adult; Aged; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 vaccines; COVID-19 Vaccines - administration & dosage; Female; Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Illnesses; Immunization; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Population studies; Psychotropic drugs; Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology; Registers; Registries; SARS-CoV-2 - immunology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Subgroups; Sweden - epidemiology; Vaccination - statistics & numerical data; Vaccines; Viral diseases; Sweden
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52342-1

Individuals with mental illness are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. However, previous studies on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in this population have reported conflicting results. Using data from seven cohort studies (N = 325,298) included in the multinational COVIDMENT consortium, and the Swedish registers (N = 8,080,234), this study investigates the association between mental illness (defined using self-report measures, clinical diagnosis and prescription data) and COVID-19 vaccination uptake. Results from the COVIDMENT cohort studies were pooled using meta-analyses, the majority of which showed no significant association between mental illness and vaccination uptake. In the Swedish register study population, we observed a very small reduction in the uptake of both the first and second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine among individuals with vs. without mental illness; the reduction was however greater among those not using psychiatric medication. Here we show that uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine is generally high among individuals both with and without mental illness, however the lower levels of vaccination uptake observed among subgroups of individuals with unmedicated mental illness warrants further attention. Monitoring COVID-19 vaccine uptake in those at risk of severe disease, such as people with mental illness, is important. Here, the authors use cohort and/or health registry data from five countries in northern Europe and investigate vaccine uptake by mental illness and treatment status.