F1000Research (May 2023)

Effects of vaccination against COVID-19 on the emotional health of older adults [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

  • Christoper A. Alarcon-Ruiz,
  • Fernando M. Runzer-Colmenares,
  • Moises Apolaya-Segura,
  • Sofía Cuba-Fuentes,
  • David Villarreal-Zegarra,
  • Jorge L. Maguiña,
  • Jeff Huarcaya-Victoria,
  • Elisa Romani-Huacani,
  • Zoila Romero-Albino,
  • Percy Soto-Becerra

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the mental and emotional health of the elderly, especially those from low to middle-income countries. However, COVID-19 vaccination may reduce this influence. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the effect of vaccination against COVID-19 on the emotional health of older adults. Methods: We selected a national, random, and stratified sample of non-hospitalized adults aged 60 to 79 years from Peru who intended to receive or had already received the COVID-19 vaccine during recruitment. During June and July 2021, the assessed outcomes were fear, anxiety, and worry about COVID-19, general anxiety, and depression at baseline and after a month. We estimated the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for each altered emotional health outcome in those who had one and two doses, compared with those who were not vaccinated using multilevel logistic regression with mixed effects. Results: We recruited 861 older adults with 20.8% of loss to follow-up. At baseline, 43.9% had received only one dose of the vaccine, and 49.1% had two doses. In the analysis during follow-up, those who had two doses had less fear (aOR: 0.19; CI 95%: 0.07 to 0.51) and anxiety to COVID-19 (aOR: 0.45; CI 95%: 0.22 to 0.89), compared to unvaccinated. Also, those with two doses were significantly less likely to have fear of COVID-19 (aOR: 0.35; CI 95%: 0.21 to 0.59), anxiety about COVID-19 (aOR: 0.48; CI 95%: 0.34 to 0.68), and worry about COVID-19 (aOR: 0.58; CI 95%: 0.37 to 0.94), compared to those who had only one dose. We observed no effects in those with only one dose compared to unvaccinated. Conclusions: Two doses of COVID-19 vaccination in older adults improves their perception of COVID-19 infection consequences. This information could be integrated into the vaccination campaign as an additional beneficial effect.

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