Impact of prior vaccination on clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Fully vaccinated people remain at risk of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We examined association between prior vaccination and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Overall, 387 patients with mild-to-severe COVID-19 were enrolled. Patients were considered fully vaccinated at least 14, 7, and 14 days after receiving the second dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or mRNA-1273, second dose of BNT162b2, or single dose of Ad26.COV2.S, respectively. The primary outcomes (risk of pneumonia, requirement of supplemental oxygen, and progression to respiratory failure) were compared between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with the outcomes. There were 204 and 183 patients in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, respectively. The vaccinated group was significantly older and had more comorbidities than the unvaccinated group. Patients in the unvaccinated group were significantly more likely to develop pneumonia (65.6% vs. 36.8%) or require supplemental oxygen (29.0 vs. 15.7%) than the vaccinated group. The vaccinated group had a significantly shorter time from symptom onset to hospital discharge than the unvaccinated group (10 vs. 11 days; p<0.001). The proportion of patients who progressed to respiratory failure did not differ significantly between groups. In multivariable analyses, vaccination was associated with an approximately 70% and 82% lower likelihood of pneumonia and supplemental oxygen requirement, respectively. Being vaccinated was associated with a significantly lower risk of pneumonia and severe disease when breakthrough infection developed. Our findings support continuous efforts to increase vaccine coverage in populations.

KEYWORDS:

• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19
• vaccination
• pneumonia
• clinical outcome

Acknowledgements

None.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Contributors

Jieun Kang serves as a guarantor and takes full responsibility for the content of this manuscript, including the data and analysis.

Woo Jung Seo and Jieun Kang contributed substantially to the concept and design of the study.

Hyung Koo Kang, Hyeon-Kyoung Koo, Hye Kyeong Park, Je Eun Song, and Jieun Kang made substantial contributions to the data analysis and interpretation.

Jiyeon Kang, Hyung Koo Kang, So Hee Park, Hyeon-Kyoung Koo, Hye Kyeong Park, Sung-Soon Lee, Je Eun Song, and Yee Gyung Kwak were responsible for the data collection.

Jieun Kang wrote the first draft of the manuscript.

All authors discussed the results and reviewed the manuscript.

Competing interests

None declared.

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request.