No Link Found Between COVID-19 Vaccination and Sudden Death in Young Adults, Study Reports

India: COVID-19 vaccination did not increase the risk of unexplained sudden death among young adults in India, a recent study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research has concluded.

The study highlighted that a family history of sudden death, past COVID-19 hospitalization, and certain lifestyle behaviors increased the likelihood of unexplained sudden death.

In the wake of the COVID-19 era, there have been many instances of sudden unexplained death in the young Indian population, that is 18-45 years. This was attributed by many to the COVID-19 vaccination creating an atmosphere of worry.

With this background, more than 50 researchers across the country, including those from the ICMR - National Institute of Epidemiology, and those under the Sudden Adult Deaths Study Group got together and performed a multicentric matched case-control study to determine the factors associated with such deaths in individuals aged 18-45 years

The study was performed through the participation of 47 tertiary care hospitals across India and analysis was done on cases of healthy individuals aged 18-45 years without any known co-morbidity, who suddenly (<24 h of hospitalization or seen healthy 24 h before death) died of unexplained causes during 1st October 2021-31st March 2023.

Four controls were included per case matched for age, gender, and neighborhood. The researchers analyzed their data on COVID-19 vaccination/infection and post-COVID-19 conditions, family history of sudden death, smoking, recreational drug use, alcohol frequency and binge drinking, and vigorous-intensity physical activity two days before death/interviews and developed regression models considering COVID-19 vaccination ≤42 days before outcome, any vaccine received anytime and vaccine doses to compute an adjusted matched odds ratio (aOR). 

729 cases and 2916 controls were included in the analysis

They found the following results

• Recipients of one dose of COVID-19 vaccine lowered the odds [aOR (95% CI)] for unexplained sudden death.

• Past COVID-19 hospitalization, family history of sudden death, binge drinking 48 hours before death/interview, use of recreational drugs/substances, and performing vigorous-intensity physical activity 48 hours before death/interview were positively associated.

• Two doses lowered the odds of unexplained sudden death, whereas a single dose did not.

“COVID-19 vaccination was not associated with an increased risk of unexplained sudden death among young adults. At the same time, a family history of sudden death, hospitalization for COVID-19, and lifestyle behaviors such as recent binge drinking and vigorous-intensity physical activity were risk factors for unexplained sudden death. Addressing these factors among young adults could potentially modify their risk of unexplained sudden death,” the researchers concluded.

Reference: 

Ponnaiah, M., Bhatnagar, T., Abdulkader, R. S., Elumalai, R., Surya, J., Jeyashree, K., Kumar, M. S., Govindaraju, R., Thangaraj, J. W. V., Aggarwal, H. K., Balan, S., Baruah, T. D., Basu, A., Bavaskar, Y., Bhadoria, A. S., Bhalla, A., Bhardwaj, P., Bhat, R., Chakravarty, J., Chandy, G. M., Gupta, B. K., Kakkar, R., Karnam, A. H. F., Kataria, S., Khambholja, J., Kumar, D., Kumar, N., Lyngdoh, M., Meena, M. S., Mehta, K., Sheethal, M. P., Mukherjee, S., Mundra, A., Murugan, A., Narayanan, S., Nathan, B., Ojah, J., Patil, P., Pawar, S., Ruban, A. C. P., Vadivelu, R., Rana, R. K., Boopathy, S. N., Priya, S., Sahoo, S. K., Shah, A., Shameem, M., Shanmugam, K., Shivnitwar, S. K., Singhai, A., Srivastava, S., Sulgante, S., Talukdar, A., Verma, A., Vohra, R., Wani, R. T., Bathula, B., Kumari, G., Kumar, D. S., Narasimhan, A., Krupa, N. C., Senguttuvan, T., Surendran, P., Tamilmani, D., Turuk, A., Kumar, G., Murkherjee, A., Aggarwal, R., & Murhekar, M. V. (2023). Factors associated with unexplained sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India: A multicentric matched case-control study. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 158(4), 351-362. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_2105_23