Dissociable impacts of physical and psychological factors on side effects after COVID-19 vaccination in Japan: A within-subject repeated measures design.

BACKGROUND

Although vaccination has significantly contributed to controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, a high risk of side effects has resulted in vaccination hesitancy. Nevertheless, as COVID-19 has become common but still has a severe impact on vulnerable people, we might need to follow a long-term vaccination routine. Therefore, elucidating the characteristics of individuals who may exhibit either vulnerability or resilience to the side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccinations is of the utmost importance for the vaccination plan against COVID-19.

METHODS

Self-reported data on demographics, physical health, addictive lifestyle habits, mental health, and side effects were collected online. For 998 participants who received two vaccination doses, we performed repeated measures ANOVA, including side effects scores as dependent variables and individual characteristics as independent variables.

RESULTS

We found interactions between vaccine dose and history of suspected lifestyle diseases (F = 4.460, p = 0.012) or trait anxiety (F = 5.548, p = 0.019). Besides the aggregation of side effects after the second dose compared to the first dose, we found that increased side effects after vaccination were associated with specific personal factors: younger age (F = 18.973, p = 0.000), female sex (F = 34.507, p = 0.000), low BMI (F = 4.205, p = 0.015), no history of "specific health guidance" (F = 5.004, p = 0.007) or smoking (F = 9.123, p = 0.003) or drinking (F = 3.335, p = 0.036), and higher levels of depressive symptoms (F = 15.134, p = 0.000) or trait anxiety (F = 26.350, p = 0.000).

CONCLUSION

Physical characteristics and lifestyle habits linked with intact immune function enhanced side effects, whereas psychological characteristics linked with impaired immune function also enhanced side effects. These seemingly contradictory results could be explained at least partly by nocebo effects and suggest the need for psychological support for people with high levels of depressive symptoms or trait anxiety. Furthermore, interaction results imply that such support might be especially beneficial to those who are young and unaffected by lifestyle diseases while simultaneously showing high trait anxiety.