COVID 19 vaccination in individuals with post COVID conditions

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SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut202603 Registration no: SBU 2025/1429

Question

Which systematic reviews exist on whether COVID 19 vaccination administered to individuals with post COVID conditions affects their post COVID symptoms?

PICO

  • Population: Individuals with confirmed post COVID conditions
  • Intervention: Vaccination against SARS CoV 2
  • Comparison: No vaccination
  • Outcome: Changes in post COVID symptoms (e.g., symptom improvement, deterioration, or persistence)

Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline (Ovia), Scopus.
Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.
Risk of bias in relevant systematic reviews was assessed using an assessment tool based on AMSTAR.

Identified literature

No relevant systematic reviews with low to moderate risk of bias were identified. In seven relevant systematic reviews, the risk of bias was considered to be high, therefore the results and conclusions are not reported [1-7].

References

  1. Byambasuren O, Stehlik P, Clark J, Alcorn K, Glasziou P. Effect of covid-19 vaccination on long covid: systematic review. BMJ Med. 2023;2(1):e000385. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000385
  2. Ceban F, Kulzhabayeva D, Rodrigues NB, Di Vincenzo JD, Gill H, Subramaniapillai M, et al. COVID-19 vaccination for the prevention and treatment of long COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Brain Behav Immun. 2023;111:211-29. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.03.022
  3. Jennings S, Corrin T, Waddell L. A systematic review of the evidence on the associations and safety of COVID-19 vaccination and post COVID-19 condition. Epidemiol Infect. 2023;151:e145. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268823001279
  4. Notarte KI, Catahay JA, Velasco JV, Pastrana A, Ver AT, Pangilinan FC, et al. Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on the risk of developing long-COVID and on existing long-COVID symptoms: A systematic review. EClinicalMedicine. 2022;53:101624. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101624
  5. Rudolph AE, Al Akoury N, Bogdanenko N, Markus K, Whittle I, Wright O, et al. Factors affecting the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on post COVID-19 conditions among adults: A systematic literature review. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2025;21(1):2474772. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2025.2474772
  6. Sterian M, Naganathan T, Corrin T, Waddell L. Evidence on the associations and safety of COVID-19 vaccination and post COVID-19 condition: an updated living systematic review. Epidemiol Infect. 2025;153:e62. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268825000378
  7. Watanabe A, Iwagami M, Yasuhara J, Takagi H, Kuno T. Protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination against long COVID syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Vaccine. 2023;41(11):1783-90. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.02.008

Search strategies

Medline via OvidSP 17 October 2025

Title: Vaccination/Postcovid
Search terms Items found
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp = Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Population: Postcovid
1. COVID-19/rh OR Coronavirus Infections/rh 562
2. ((covid* or coronavirus* or corona virus* or sars cov 2 or 2019 ncov) adj3 (after care or aftercare or chronic* or continuing or convalesc* or enduring or late or lingering or long* or non specific or nonspecific or permanent or persist* or post* or prolong* or rehab* or recover* or recurr* or relaps* or remaining or residing or residual or sequela* or sequelae* or telerehab*)).ti,kf. 21 225
3. ((covid* or coronavirus* or corona virus* or sars cov 2 or 2019 ncov) adj5 (after care or aftercare or chronic* or continuing or convalesc* or enduring or late or lingering or long* or longterm* or non specific or nonspecific or permanent or persist* or post* or prolong* or rehab* or recover* or recurr* or relaps* or remaining or residing or residua11386l or sequela* or sequelae* or telerehab*) adj5 (anxiet* or arrhythmia* or arrythmia* or asthma* or brain or breath* or cardiac* or cognit* or depress* or dizz* or dyspnea* or dysrhythmia* or fatigue or fever* or gustat* or heart* or insomnia or kidney* or lung* or nausea or neuro* or olfact* or pain or palpitation* or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or pots or pneumoni* or pulmonary or respirat* or sleep* or smell* or spinning or symptom* or tast* or vertigo*)).ab. 11 386
4. Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome/ OR postcovid*.ti,ab,kf. 4569
5. COVID-19/ OR Coronavirus Infections/ OR (covid* or coronavirus* or corona virus* or sars cov 2 or 2019 ncov).ti,ab,kf. 504 916
6. (persist* adj5 symptom*).ti,ab,kf OR (long haul* or post acute or post viral or post virus or sequela* or sequelae*).ti,ab,kf. 127 401
7. (long covid* or post covid*).ab. 14 927
8. 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 OR (5 AND 6) OR 7 31 785
Intervention: Vaccination
9. COVID-19 vaccines/ or Vaccination/ or Immunization/ or Vaccine efficacy/Vaccin*.ti,ab. or inoculat*.ti,ab. or immuni?ation.ti,ab. or (one dose* or two dose* or first dose* or second dose*).ti,ab. or (immunostimulation or 'immunologic stimulation').ti,ab. or unvaccin*.ti,ab. or pfizer.ti,ab. or astrazeneca.ti,ab. or mrna.ti,ab. or janssen.ti,ab. or 'johnson & johnson'.ti,ab. or Novavax.ti,ab. or Covaxin.ti,ab. or sinopharm.ti,ab. 1 324 737
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
10. (Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab. or (realist adj4 review).ti,bt,ab. or (integrative adj4 review).ti,bt,ab. or (mixed method* adj4 review).ti,bt,ab. or (umbrella adj4 review).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/) 573 917
Combined sets:
11. 8 AND 9 AND 10 192
Final result
12.   192

Scopus via scopus.com 17 October 2025

Title: Vaccination/Postcovid
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population: Postcovid
1. ( TITLE-ABS ( "COVID-19" OR covid* OR coronavirus* OR "corona virus*" OR "sars cov 2" OR "2019 ncov" ) W/3 TITLE-ABS ("after care" OR aftercare OR chronic* OR continuing OR convalesc* OR enduring OR late OR lingering OR long* OR "nonspecific" OR non specific OR permanent OR persist* OR post* OR prolong* OR rehab* OR recover* OR recur* OR relaps* OR remaining OR residing OR residual OR sequela* OR sequelae* OR telerehab* ) OR TITLE-ABS ( postcovid* OR "long covid*" OR "post covid*" ) ) 54 036
Intervention: Vaccination
2. ( TITLE-ABS ( vaccin* OR inoculat* OR immuni?ation OR unvaccin* OR dose* OR pfizer OR astrazeneca OR mrna OR janssen OR "johnson & johnson" OR novavax OR covaxin OR sinopharm ) ) 3 563 521
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
3. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( (systematic OR realist OR integrative OR “mixed method*” or umbrella) W/3& review ) OR& "meta analy*" OR metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”)) 863 617
Combined sets:
4. 1 AND 2 AND 3 387
Final result
5.   387
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