Sudden Hearing Loss Following Vaccination Against COVID-19
Tuomo A Nieminen 1, Ilkka Kivekäs 2 3, Miia Artama 4, Hanna Nohynek 1, Jarno Kujansivu 2, Petteri Hovi 1
Affiliations expand
PMID: 36520464 PMCID: PMC9857204 DOI: 10.1001/jamaoto.2022.4154
Abstract
Importance: Spontaneous adverse reaction reports of sudden hearing loss have been observed, and a population-based cohort study conducted in Israel showed an increase in the incidence of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) following vaccination with messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech). However, in this setting, the possibility of confounding remained.
Objective: To assess a potential association between COVID-19 vaccinations and SSNHL.
Design, setting, and participants: This register-based country-wide retrospective cohort study of 5.5 million Finnish residents was conducted from January 1, 2019, to April 20, 2022, and included all individuals who were identified from the population information system who were alive or born during the study period except individuals who had SSNHL during 2015 to 2018 according to specialized care derived diagnosis codes for SSNHL (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision [ICD-10] code H91.2) as a primary or secondary diagnosis.
Exposures: The a priori primary risk period was 0 to 54 days following each COVID-19 vaccination. The risk periods for different vaccine doses did not overlap so that a later vaccine exposure ended the previous risk period. The secondary risk period was from 55 days following each COVID-19 vaccination until a subsequent COVID-19 vaccination. A secondary analysis included a risk time from 0 to 54 days following a positive polymerase chain reaction test result for SARS-CoV-2.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36520464/