Self-reported side effects of COVID-19 vaccines among the public

Mahmathi Karuppannan; Long Chiau Ming; Mohd Shahezwan Abdul Wahab; Zakiah Mohd Noordin; Shermaine Yee; Andi Hermansyah

doi:10.1080/20523211.2024.2308617

Self-reported side effects of COVID-19 vaccines among the public

J Pharm Policy Pract. 2024 Feb 27;17(1):2308617. doi: 10.1080/20523211.2024.2308617. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Mahmathi Karuppannan^{1

2}, Long Chiau Ming^{3

4

5}, Mohd Shahezwan Abdul Wahab^{1

2}, Zakiah Mohd Noordin^{1

2}, Shermaine Yee⁶, Andi Hermansyah³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Selangor, Bandar Puncak Alam, Malaysia.
² Cardiology Therapeutics Research Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Selangor, Puncak Alam Campus, Bandar Puncak Alam, Malaysia.
³ Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.
⁴ School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Sunway City, Malaysia.
⁵ PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine, Quest International University, Ipoh, Malaysia.

Abstract

Background: The safety, side effects and efficacy profile of COVID-19 vaccines remain subjects of ongoing concern among the public in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to determine the types of adverse effects following immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines and the differences based on various types of COVID-19 vaccines to raise public awareness and reduce vaccine hesitancy among the public.

Methods: A total of 901 Malaysian adults (≥18 years) who received various COVID-19 vaccines were selected to participate in our cross-sectional study through an online survey between December 2021 and January 2022.

Results: A total of 814 (90.3%) of the participants reported ≥1 side effect following COVID-19 immunisation. Of these, the predominant symptoms were swelling at the injection site (n = 752, 83.5%), headache (n = 638, 70.8%), pain or soreness at the injection site (n = 628, 69.7%), fatigue or tiredness (n = 544, 60.4%), muscle weakness (n = 529, 58.7%) and diarrhea (n = 451, 50.1%). Recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty ®) vaccine reported the highest number of adverse effects (n = 355, 43.6%), followed by mixed COVID-19 vaccines (n = 254, 31.2%), the Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1-®[recombinant]) vaccine (n = 113, 13.9%) and the Sinovac (CoronaVac®) vaccine (n = 90, 11.1%). The study showed that individuals who reported significantly more side effects were of elderly age, female gender and high educational level [P value < 0.05]. Mixed COVID-19 vaccine recipients also reported significantly more local and systemic symptoms after the first dose and third dose when compared with other single vaccine recipients.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated the types of self-reported adverse effects following immunisation with single and mixed COVID-19 vaccines. These findings may provide the side effects of different COVID-19 vaccines with the hope of educating the public on the safety profiles of these vaccines and reducing vaccine hesitancy among the public.

Keywords: COVID-19; Side (adverse) effect; communicable diseases; infectious disease‌; mixed vaccine; single vaccine; vaccine hesitancy.