ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 120
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on long COVID:
A systematic review
Dr Oyuka Byambasuren1, Paulina Stehlik1, Justin Clark1, Kylie Alcorn2, Paul Glasziou1
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Bond University, 2Gold Coast University Hospital
Background
The impact of COVID-19 vaccination on preventing or treating long COVID is unclear. We aim to assess
the impact of COVID vaccinations administered (i) before and (ii) after acute COVID-19, including
vaccination after long COVID diagnosis, on the rates or symptoms of long COVID.
Methods
PubMed, Embase, Cochrane COVID-19 trials and Europe PMC were searched for articles until 3
August 2022. Trials, cohort and case control studies reporting on long COVID cases and symptoms
with COVID-19 vaccines administered both before and after COVID-19 diagnosis as well as after long
COVID diagnosis were included. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I.
Results
In all, 1645 articles were screened but no trial was found. Sixteen observational studies from five
countries (US, UK, France, Italy, Netherlands) that reported on 614,392 patients were included. The
most common long COVID symptoms studied include fatigue, cough, loss of smell, shortness of
breath, loss of taste, headache, muscle ache, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, worry or
anxiety and memory loss or confusion. Twelve studies reported data on vaccination before SARSCoV-2 infection, of which 10 showed statistically significant reduction in long COVID: the odds ratio
of developing long COVID with one dose of vaccine ranged between 0.22 and 1.03; with two doses,
the OR was 0.25–1; with three doses the OR was 0.16; and with any dose the OR was 0.48–1.01.
Five studies reported on postinfection vaccination with odds ratios between 0.38 and 0.91. The high
heterogeneity between studies precluded any meaningful meta-analysis. The high risk of bias in
studies decreases the certainty of evidence to low.
Conclusion
Current studies suggest that COVID-19 vaccinations may have protective and therapeutic effects on
long COVID. However, more robust comparative observational studies and trials are urgently needed
to clearly determine the effectiveness of vaccines in the prevention and treatment of long COVID.
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