Study finds those vaccinated before getting COVID-19 infection at lower risk of post-discharge mortality

A one-year follow-up of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals found that participants who received at least one dose of anti-Covid vaccination before contracting the coronavirus infection had a lower risk of post-discharge mortality.

New Delhi: A one-year follow-up of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals found that participants who received at least one dose of anti-Covid vaccination before contracting the coronavirus infection had a lower risk of post-discharge mortality, according to a study by ICMR.

Of the 14,419 participants who were followed up at least once between four weeks and one-year post-discharge, 942 (6.5 per cent) had died and the remaining (93.5 per cent) were reported alive at any contact during one year of follow-up.

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They were from 31 hospitals across the country. “Participants who had received at least one dose of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine before their COVID-19 infection had a lower risk of post-discharge mortality,” the study said.

Vaccination prior to the COVID-19 infection (at least a single dose) provided 60 per cent protection against post-discharge mortality. People older than 40 years, men with co-morbidities and those who had moderate to severe COVID-19 to begin with had a higher chance of all-cause mortality within one of discharge from hospital.

The study “Determinants of post-discharge mortality among hospitalised COVID-19 patients: Nested matched case-control analyses from the National Clinical Registry for COVID-19” has been published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR).

It was conducted by the National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 study team. The team conducted nested matched case-control analyses to evaluate the factors related to one-year post-discharge mortality. The country’s apex research body, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has been maintaining the National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 at 31 centres across the country, where all hospitalised COVID-19 patients were periodically contacted by telephone till one year after discharge.

Data collected till February 2023 were included in this analysis. Emphasis was put on the 18-45 yr of age to understand the factors associated with post-discharge death in young adults. Factors associated with death in them after discharge were similar to the ones observed in other age brackets.

Prior anti-COVID-19 vaccination did lend some protection against all-cause post-discharge death in this age group, although this cannot be claimed conclusively as the association was not statistically significant.

The limitations of the current investigation include reliance on telephonic follow-up, which could have led to under-reporting of the symptoms. The present analyses only included patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19, and consequently, the findings cannot be generalized to all patients who had COVID-19, the study stated.

The ICMR is also conducting a multicentric hospital-based matched case-control study on the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on thrombotic events among the 18–45-year-old population in India in 2022 and on factors associated with sudden deaths among adults aged 18–45 years in India.