Abstract
Background: A number of aspects of people's lives were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including their physical, social, emotional, and behavioral well-being. The WHO reported COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020. Rapid herd immunity by vaccination is required to block mutation and prevent the emergence of variants.
In December 2020, Saudi Arabia started its COVID-19 vaccination program to stop the spread of COVID-19.
As healthcare workers are on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, they require adequate protection to prevent onward transmission and to decrease the burden on the healthcare system. This study aimed to investigate the shortterm side effects of Covid-19 vaccines and the association with sociodemographic factors among health care workers in Primary Health Care Centers in Jeddah 2021-2022.
Subject and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among health care workers in Primary Health Care Centers of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Jeddah. Using an online questionnaire. Multi-stage sampling techniques were applied. The first stage was to select the included PHCs, then a sampling of health care staff category in the PHC.
Results: The type of vaccination received by healthcare professionals included in this study varied with Pfizer vaccine being most common (n=191, 43%). Study participants who received two doses reported several side effects (N=45). The most common side effect among them was injection site pain (n=14, 31.1%). Symptoms after second dose were more severe among participants who received Pfizer vaccination (P=0.001).
Conclusion: Among study participants, the most prevalent adverse effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were injection site discomfort, weariness, headache, muscle soreness, chills, and joint pain. In terms of their relationship with the (25-35) age group and the second dosage, they were very compatible with the manufacturer's data. The overall frequency of several local and systemic adverse effects was great, which might be due to the unique demographic involved in this research.