Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Aug:109:108906.
doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2022.108906. Epub 2022 May 30.

Adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hamidreza Kouhpayeh  1 , Hossein Ansari  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hamidreza Kouhpayeh et al. Int Immunopharmacol. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Background: High speed of COVID-19 vaccination has raised some concerns about the safety of the new vaccines. It is of a great importance to perform a review of the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods: Two International electronic databases (PubMed, ISI) were searched for clinical trials reporting efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines compared to control group. Pooled risk ratio (RR) for total, systemic and local adverse events following immunization was calculated for different vaccine modalities.

Results: The pooled RRs of total adverse reactions for Inactivated, mRNA, and vector vaccines were 1.46 (95% CI: 1.19-1.78), 2.01 (95% CI: 1.82 - 2.23), and 1.65 (95% CI: 1.31 - 2.32) respectively. The pooled RR for occurrence of systemic adverse reactions following immunization for different vaccine modalities was 1.13 (95% CI: 0.79 - 1.61), 1.53 (95% CI 1.08 - 2.16), 1.58 (95% CI: 1.13 - 1.90), 0.72 (95% CI: 0.34 - 1.55), and 1.62 (95% CI: 1.39 - 1.89) for inactivated vaccine, mRNA, vector, DNA, and protein subunit vaccines respectively. The pooled RR of local adverse event following immunization with inactivated vaccine, mRNA vaccine, vector vaccine, DNA vaccine, and protein subunit vaccine was 2.18 (95% CI: 1.32 - 3.59), 4.96 (95% CI: 4.02 - 6.11), 1.48 (95% CI: 0.88-2.50) 1.04 (95% CI: 0.12-8.75), and 4.09 (95% CI: 2.63-6.35) respectively.

Conclusion: mRNA vaccines are associated with greater risk of adverse events following immunization. However, at the present moment the benefits of all types of vaccines approved by WHO, still outweigh the risks of them and vaccination if available, is highly recommended.

Keywords: Adverse events; COVID-19; Efficacy; SARS-CoV-2; Safety.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of the study selection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The forest plot of pooled RRs of any adverse reaction following immunization for different types of vaccines.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The forest plot of pooled RRs of systemic adverse reaction following immunization for different types of vaccines.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The forest plot of pooled RRs of local adverse reaction following immunization for different types of vaccines.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
the funnel plot of included stydies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zhu N.a., Zhang D., Wang W., Li X., Yang B.o., Song J., Zhao X., Huang B., Shi W., Lu R., Niu P., Zhan F., Ma X., Wang D., Xu W., Wu G., Gao G.F., Tan W. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in china, 2019. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020;382(8):727–733. - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO. Weekly epidemiological update—9 March 2021.https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update---.... Accessed 15 Mar 2021.
    1. Pak A., et al. Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Outbreak: the Need for Epidemic Preparedness. Front Public Health. 2020;8:241. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chang A.Y., Cullen M.R., Harrington R.A., Barry M. The impact of novel coronavirus COVID-19 on noncommunicable disease patients and health systems: a review. J Intern Med. 2021;289(4):450–462. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ansari M., et al. Discrimination in COVID-19 vaccination programs - a possible risk for mental health. Asian J. Psychiatr. 2021;63 - PMC - PubMed