Association between bnt162b2 vaccination and quality of life up to 18 months post-covid19 among sars-cov-2 infected individuals in israel: a cross sectional survey

Background and objectives: Approximately 10-30% proportion of SARS-CoV-2- infected individuals continue to report symptoms months after the acute infection. Despite a growing consensus that vaccination reduces the reporting of these long-term symptoms, whether vaccination mitigates changes in quality of life (QoL) associated with pot-acute COVID19 symptoms has not been fully investigated. We aimed to identify any association between the BnT162b2 vaccination use din Israel and QoL among individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Israel, 3 to 18 months after infection. Methods: We invited individuals aged 18 years and older whose SARS-CoV-2 r polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was analysed between 15th March 2020 and 15th June 2022 in one of three government hospitals in Northern Israel, to fill a questionnaire pertaining to their physical, mental and psychosocial health. We examined associations between their vaccination status and post-COVID HRQoL (measured using the EQ5D-5L Utility index (UI) that ranges from less than 0 (lowest QoL) to 1) using linear regression, after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: 951 participants with complete data were included. Mean UI for participants unvaccinated at the time of infection was 0.77, compared to 0.82 and 0.83 for double and triple vaccinated participants respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, double and triple vaccination was associated with a 6.1 and 5.6 percentage-point increase in QoL respectively 3-18 months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to those unvaccinated (p< 0.05). Conclusions: Vaccination with 2 doses or more of BNT162b2 vaccine was associated with better QoL outcomes 3-18 months post infection compared to those unvaccinated at the time of infection. Our results suggests COVID-19 vaccination not only reduces post-acute COVID19 symptoms but may also mitigate the decrease in quality of life associated with symptoms post-acute COVID19 illness.