Assessing the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccine in different scenarios in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

Article Figures & Data

Table 1

- Common vaccine side effects related to participants’ infection status before vaccination.

Vaccine side effects	Yes	No	Total	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	10	13	23	0.295
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	79	160	239	0.510
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	50	79	129	0.137
Temporary post-injection inflammation	126	368	494	0.019
Fever	133	275	408	0.735
Musculoskeletal pain	148	335	483	0.984
Sore throat	25	33	58	0.105
Congestion	13	27	40	0.916
Diarrhea	11	15	26	0.456
Conjunctivitis	6	8	14	0.235
Headache	93	207	300	0.197
Anosmia	15	7	22	0.001
Ageusia	14	7	21	0.002
Difficulty in communicating	1	9	10	0.344
Difficulty in movement	35	72	107	0.883
Allergy and rash	6	8	14	0.050
Dyspnea	10	26	36	0.262
Chest pain	18	25	43	0.170
No symptoms	41	184	225	0.001
Total	834	1858	2692

P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Table 2

- Vaccine side effects related to participants’ gender.

Vaccine side effects	Male	Female	Total	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	7 (30)	16 (70)	23	0.506
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	100 (42)	139 (58)	239	0.879
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	45 (35)	84 (65)	129	0.359
Temporary post-injection inflammation	194 (39)	300 (61)	494	0.599
Fever	182 (45)	226 (55)	408	0.354
Musculoskeletal pain	196 (41)	287 (59)	483	0.885
Sore throat	17 (29)	41 (71)	58	0.243
Congestion	15 (38)	25 (63)	40	0.768
Diarrhea	10 (38)	16 (62)	26	0.862
Conjunctivitis	4 (29)	10 (71)	14	0.542
Headache	109 (36)	191 (64)	300	0.283
Anosmia	7 (32)	15 (68)	22	0.571
Ageusia	8 (38)	13 (62)	21	0.858
Difficulty in communicating	0 (0)	5 (100)	5	0.231
Difficulty in movement	37 (35)	70 (65)	107	0.201
Allergy and rash	7 (50)	7 (50)	14	0.664
Dyspnea	6 (17)	30 (83)	36	0.056
Chest pain	13 (30)	30 (70)	43	0.354
No symptoms	147 (65)	78 (35)	225	0.001
Total	1104 (41)	1583 (59)	2687

Values are presented as number and percentages (%). P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Table 3

- Vaccine side effects related to the participant’s age.

Vaccine side effects	≤20	21-35	36-50	51-65	>65	Total	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	5 (22)	9 (39)	9 (39)	0 (0)	0 (0)	23	0.384
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	43 (18)	119 (50)	59 (25)	17 (7)	1 (0)	239	0.586
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	30 (23)	57 (44)	33 (26)	9 (7)	0 (0)	129	0.680
Temporary post-injection inflammation	86 (17)	208 (42)	132 (27)	62 (13)	6 (1)	494	0.008
Fever	75 (18)	185 (45)	108 (26)	33 (8)	7 (2)	408	0.568
Musculoskeletal pain	95 (20)	229 (47)	120 (25)	34 (7)	5 (1)	483	0.821
Sore throat	14 (24)	26 (45)	16 (28)	2 (3)	0 (0)	58	0.578
Congestion	4 (10)	22 (55)	13 (33)	1 (3)	0 (0)	40	0.219
Diarrhea	2 (8)	16 (62)	7 (27)	1 (4)	0 (0)	26	0.353
Conjunctivitis	4 (29)	4 (29)	6 (43)	0 (0)	0 (0)	14	0.351
Headache	70 (23)	155 (52)	59 (20)	13 (4)	3 (1)	300	0.008
Anosmia	5 (23)	10 (45)	6 (27)	1 (5)	0 (0)	22	0.948
Ageusia	4 (16)	11 (44)	5 (20)	5 (20)	0 (0)	25	0.312
Difficulty in communicating	1 (20)	1 (20)	2 (40)	0 (0)	1 (20)	5	0.001
Difficulty in movement	32 (30)	43 (40)	28 (26)	4 (4)	0 (0)	107	0.046
Allergy and rash	3 (21)	8 (57)	2 (14)	1 (7)	0 (0)	14	0.867
Dyspnea	13 (36)	11 (31)	11 (31)	1 (3)	0 (0)	36	0.075
Chest pain	9 (21)	15 (35)	16 (37)	3 (7)	0 (0)	43	0.397
No symptoms	44 (20)	90 (41)	44 (20)	38 (17)	4 (2)	220	0.001
Total	539 (20)	1219 (45)	676 (25)	225 (8)	27 (1)	2686

Values are presented as number and percentages (%). P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Table 4

- Comparative vaccine side effects related to participants’ infection status before vaccination.

Infected before vaccinated	Yes	No	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	10 (43)	13 (57)	0.655
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	79 (33)	160 (67)	0.853
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	50 (39)	79 (61)	0.410
Temporary post-injection inflammation	126 (26)	368 (74)	0.095
Fever	133 (33)	275 (67)	0.961
Musculoskeletal pain	148 (31)	335 (69)	1.000
Sore throat	25 (43)	33 (57)	0.342
Congestion	13 (33)	27 (68)	0.996
Diarrhea	11 (42)	15 (58)	0.814
Conjunctivitis	6 (43)	8 (57)	0.576
Headache	93 (31)	207 (69)	0.517
Anosmia	15 (68)	7 (32)	0.007
Ageusia	14 (67)	7 (33)	0.011
Difficulty in communicating	1 (10)	9 (90)	0.711
Difficulty in movement	35 (33)	72 (67)	0.993
Allergy and rash	6 (43)	8 (57)	0.199
Dyspnea	10 (28)	26 (72)	0.613
Chest pain	18 (42)	25 (58)	0.472
No symptoms	41 (18)	184 (82)	0.002
Total	834 (31)	1858 (69)	0.655

Values are presented as number and percentages (%). P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Table 5

- Vaccine side effects related to participants’ COVID-19 infection after vaccination.

Have you been infected with COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine?	No	Yes after the first shot	Yes after the second shot	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	19 (83)	3 (13)	1 (4)	0.716
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	215 (90)	18 (8)	6 (3)	0.976
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	120 (93)	5 (4)	4 (3)	0.689
Temporary post-injection inflammation	454 (92)	31 (6)	9 (2)	0.987
Fever	369 (90)	31 (8)	8 (2)	0.973
Musculoskeletal pain	437 (90)	37 (8)	9 (2)	0.945
Sore throat	52 (90)	4 (7)	2 (3)	0.970
Congestion	34 (85)	5 (13)	1 (3)	0.704
Diarrhea	23 (88)	1 (4)	2 (8)	0.371
Conjunctivitis	14 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0.852
Headache	269 (90)	26 (9)	5 (2)	0.738
Anosmia	20 (91)	2 (9)	0 (0)	0.959
Ageusia	20 (95)	1 (5)	0 (0)	0.963
Difficulty in communicating	5 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0.975
Difficulty in movement	100 (93)	4 (4)	3 (3)	0.781
Allergy and rash	13 (93)	0 (0)	1 (7)	0.615
Dyspnea	34 (94)	1 (3)	1 (3)	0.915
Chest pain	38 (88)	4 (9)	1 (2)	0.976
No symptoms	214 (95)	8 (4)	3 (1)	0.358
Total	2450 (91)	181 (7)	56 (2)

Values are presented as number and percentages (%). P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Table 6

- Vaccine side effect duration between the 2 doses.

Symptom duration	A day to 3 days	3 days to a week	Week to a month	>3 months	P-value
Hospitalized due to severe symptoms	11 (48)	6 (26)	4 (17)	2 (9)	0.001
Severe symptoms but not hospitalized	184 (77)	43 (18)	11 (5)	1 (0.4)	0.667
Long-lasting post-injection inflammation	84 (65)	38 (29)	6 (5)	1 (1)	0.029
Temporary post-injection inflammation	384 (86)	55 (12)	7 (2)	2 (0.4)	0.001
Fever	363 (84)	55 (13)	13 (3)	3 (1)	0.001
Musculoskeletal pain	215 (70)	74 (24)	15 (5)	5 (2)	0.001
Sore throat	32 (64)	13 (26)	5 (10)	0 (0)	0.042
Congestion	19 (54)	12 (34)	4 (11)	0 (0)	0.004
Diarrhea	11 (47)	9 (40)	2 (9)	1 (4)	0.004
Conjunctivitis	9 (64)	3 (21)	1 (7)	1 (7)	0.207
Headache	236 (79)	52 (17)	11 (4)	1 (0.3)	0.362
Anosmia	7 (32)	10 (45)	2 (9)	3 (14)	0.001
Ageusia	9 (43)	9 (43)	2 (10)	1 (5)	0.006
Difficulty in communicating	4 (80)	1 (20)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0.962
Difficulty in movement	79 (74)	21 (20)	6 (6)	1 (1)	0.913
Allergy and rash	6 (43)	5 (36)	2 (14)	1 (7)	0.011
Dyspnea	16 (44)	13 (36)	6 (17)	1 (3)	0.001
Chest pain	16 (37)	16 (37)	9 (21)	2 (5)	0.001
No symptoms	213 (95)	6 (3)	2 (1)	4 (2)	0.001
Total	1897 (77)	441 (18)	108 (4)	30 (1)