The Adverse events of COVID-19 vaccine among Saudi population: A Cross-Sectional Study

COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for use in emergency situations prior to completing the conventional phases of clinical trials. Nevertheless, thorough analysis of the safety data from the vaccine studies is less established. This study assessed the prevalence and severity of adverse events associated with various COVID-19 vaccine types among residents of Saudi Arabia. This study is a digital questionnaire-based retrospective cross-sectional study conducted among residents of Saudi Arabia from February 2022 to April 2022. It included residents aged 12 years and above who received either one or two vaccines of Moderna, Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Janssen. A total of 5071 participants were involved in this study. Most of the participants were Saudi nationals (92.90%), and mostly females (85.90%). Most of the participants were aged 31-49 years. The most common post-vaccine symptom was pain at the site of injection (54.4%), followed by fatigue & lethargy (54%). Myalgia, fever and headache were the next most experienced symptoms (53.2%, 40.4% and 43.9% respectively). Symptoms were significantly variable in relation to the type of vaccine (p <0.001). Moreover, age, gender, type of vaccine, history of previous COVID-19 infection and smoking status significantly affected the severity of post-vaccination symptoms (p<0.001). Nearly a third of participants (30.10%) were suffering from different co-morbidities of these diabetes mellitus, heart disease and chest disease only affect severity of the adverse events. The frequently reported undesirable effects of COVID-19 vaccines were pain at the site of injection, fatigability, lethargy, myalgia, fever and headache. The prevalence of adverse events was significantly impacted by the type of vaccine. However, there were significant differences in severity of their adverse events based on age, gender, type of vaccination, smoking status and presence of comorbidities like diabetes, heart disease and chest diseases.