Diphtheria And Tetanus Vaccination History Is Associated With Lower Odds of COVID-19 Hospitalization
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
COVID-19 is characterized by strikingly large, mostly unexplained, interindividual variation in symptom severity: while some individuals remain nearly asymptomatic, others suffer from severe respiratory failure. Previous vaccinations for other pathogens, in particular tetanus, may partly explain this variation, possibly by readying the immune system.
Methods
We made use of data on COVID-19 testing from 103,049 participants of the UK Biobank (mean age 71.5 years, 54.2% female), coupled to immunization records of the last ten years. Using logistic regression, covarying for age, sex, respiratory disease diagnosis, and socioeconomic status, we tested whether individuals vaccinated for tetanus, diphtheria or pertussis, differed from individuals that had only received other vaccinations on 1) undergoing a COVID-19 test, 2) being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3) whether they developed severe COVID-19 symptoms.
Results
We found that individuals with registered diphtheria or tetanus vaccinations are less likely to develop severe COVID-19 than people who had only received other vaccinations (diphtheria odds ratio (OR)=0.47, p-value=5.3*10 -5 ; tetanus OR=0.52, p-value=1.2*10 -4 ).
Discussion
These results indicate that a history of diphtheria or tetanus vaccinations is associated with less severe manifestations of COVID-19. These vaccinations may protect against severe COVID-19 symptoms by stimulating the immune system. We note the correlational nature of these results, yet the possibility that these vaccinations may influence the severity of COVID-19 warrants follow-up investigations.
Article activity feed
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.09.21257809: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable The full sample size was n=103,049, with a mean age of 71.46 years (SD=6.92) in March 2020; 54.19% of the sample was female. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We additionally covaried for the presence of respiratory disease diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases v10, codes starting with a ‘J’ (yes/no, n=21934/81115), to lower the potential influence of pre-existing differences in respiratory difficulties between the vaccine groups. Diseasessuggested: NonePlots were made through the ggplot2 package. ggplot2suggested: (ggplot2, …SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.09.21257809: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable The full sample size was n=103,049, with a mean age of 71.46 years (SD=6.92) in March 2020; 54.19% of the sample was female. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We additionally covaried for the presence of respiratory disease diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases v10, codes starting with a ‘J’ (yes/no, n=21934/81115), to lower the potential influence of pre-existing differences in respiratory difficulties between the vaccine groups. Diseasessuggested: NonePlots were made through the ggplot2 package. ggplot2suggested: (ggplot2, RRID:SCR_014601)Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code.
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
-
