• Peter Nordström, Marcel Ballin, and Anna Nordström.
• Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Clinical Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
• PLoS Med. 2023 Feb 1; 20 (2): e1004127e1004127.

BackgroundReal-world evidence on the safety and effectiveness of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination against severe disease caused by the omicron variant among adolescents is sparse. In addition, evidence on risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease, and whether vaccination is similarly effective in such risk groups, is unclear. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the safety and effectiveness of monovalent COVID-19 mRNA vaccination against COVID-19 hospitalisation, and risk factors for COVID-19 hospitalisation in adolescents.Methods And FindingsA cohort study was conducted using Swedish nationwide registers. The safety analysis included all individuals in Sweden born between 2003 and 2009 (aged 11.3 to 19.2 years) given at least 1 dose of monovalent mRNA vaccine (N = 645,355), and never vaccinated controls (N = 186,918). The outcomes included all-cause hospitalisation and 30 selected diagnoses until 5 June 2022. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 hospitalisation, and risk factors for hospitalisation, were evaluated in adolescents given 2 doses of monovalent mRNA vaccine (N = 501,945), as compared to never vaccinated controls (N = 157,979), for up to 5 months follow-up during an omicron predominant period (1 January 2022 to 5 June 2022). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, baseline date, and whether the individual was born in Sweden. The safety analysis showed that vaccination was associated with 16% lower (95% confidence interval (CI) [12, 19], p < 0.001) risk of all-cause hospitalisation, and with marginal differences between the groups regarding the 30 selected diagnoses. In the VE analysis, there were 21 cases (0.004%) of COVID-19 hospitalisation among 2-dose recipients and 26 cases (0.016%) among controls, resulting in a VE of 76% (95% CI [57, 87], p < 0.001). Predominant risk factors for COVID-19 hospitalisation included previous infections (bacterial infection, tonsillitis, and pneumonia) (odds ratio [OR]: 14.3, 95% CI [7.7, 26.6], p < 0.001), and cerebral palsy/development disorders (OR: 12.7, 95% CI [6.8, 23.8], p < 0.001), with similar estimates of VE in these subgroups as in the total cohort. The number needed to vaccinate with 2 doses to prevent 1 case of COVID-19 hospitalisation was 8,147 in the total cohort and 1,007 in those with previous infections or developmental disorders. None of the individuals hospitalised due to COVID-19 died within 30 days. Limitations of this study include the observational design and the possibility of unmeasured confounding.ConclusionsIn this nationwide study of Swedish adolescents, monovalent COVID-19 mRNA vaccination was not associated with an increased risk of any serious adverse events resulting in hospitalisation. Vaccination with 2 doses was associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation during an omicron predominant period, also among those with certain predisposing conditions who should be prioritised for vaccination. However, COVID-19 hospitalisation in the general population of adolescents was extremely rare, and additional doses in this population may not be warranted at this stage.Copyright: © 2023 Nordström et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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