• Last updated: Fri, May 31, 2024Status: Ongoing
• Anton Nilsson, Carl Bonander, Jonas Björk, Dominik Dietler, and Tove Fall

The effects of COVID-19 vaccination on cardiovascular outcomes: an analysis exploiting temporal variation in vaccination eligibility

This project will investigate the short-term effects of COVID-19 vaccinations on cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Previous evidence has shown that vaccination against COVID-19 may lead to short-term adverse CV events, particularly myocarditis and pericarditis. At the same time, several adverse CV consequences of COVID-19 have also been documented, meaning that COVID-19 vaccination may be protective against certain CV outcomes via its protection against COVID-19. For more credible conclusions on these issues, more evidence is needed, however. In particular, there is a need for evidence from studies not influenced by unobserved factors that are related to both the propensity to get vaccinated and to the risk of an adverse CV event. In this project, we provide such evidence by exploiting the timing of vaccine eligibility across different groups in society.

The analysis will involve comparisons along two main dimensions: 1) population groups (primarily determined by age) and 2) time (before and after the group became eligible for vaccination). We will make use of data on the timing of the rollout of the vaccinations in the different counties of Sweden. Outcomes studied will include incidences of myocarditis/pericarditis, dysrhythmias, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and transit ischemic attack/stroke, as measured based on deaths and hospital visits.