Covid-19: Post-vaccine symptoms more common in young than elderly, says study

The study said that chances of having post-vaccination symptoms decreased with advancing age.

The symptoms that emerge after taking Covid-19 vaccine are more prevalent among younger individuals than the elderly in India, as per a study conducted by the Kochi branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

Post-vaccination symptoms were noticed in less than 12 hours of the administration of the dose and were reported more by women than men. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The study said that chances of having post-vaccination symptoms decreased with advancing age. The survey which studied 5,396 people showed that those in the age group of 20-29 had a symptom frequency of 81 per cent after getting vaccinated, while it was seven per cent for the people in the bracket of 80-90 years.

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Post-vaccination symptoms were noticed in less than 12 hours of the administration of the dose and were reported more by women than men, the study further said. Around 74.7 per cent of women experienced post-immunisation symptoms in comparison to 58.6 per cent of men.

The study said that two-third of the healthcare professionals administered with the Covid-19 vaccine who completed the survey reported mild and short-lived post immunisation symptoms. The symptoms in most of the cases were milder than expected or as per expectations of the vaccine recipient, the IMA study said.

The most commonly detected symptoms after the immunisation involve tiredness, myalgia and fever. Tiredness was experienced by 45 per cent of the respondents, myalgia was experienced in 44 per cent, fever by 34 per cent, headache by 28 per cent, local pain at the injection site by 27 per cent, joint pain by 12 per cent, nausea by 8 per cent and diarrhea by 3 per cent of the respondents, the study said.

Another noteworthy conclusion from the study was that the symptoms of those with the history of Covid-19 was not different to those who did not have the history of the disease.

The study was a result of the cross-sectional online survey that had questions relating to the immediate post-Covid vaccination experience in India. As many as 947 respondents who took part in that survey were above the age of 60, said Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, head of epidemiology cell of IMA Kochi.

Dr Jayadevan had also tweeted about the results of the survey, informing about the unique observations through simpler graphics. The tweet also said that as per the study most of the respondents did not feel that the vaccine symptoms affected their work the next day.