A novel study involving smartwatch data reveals that COVID-19 booster shot is safe for the heart, reveals a PTI report.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University equipped close to 5,000 Israelis with smartwatches and monitored their physiological parameters over two years.?
Of those, around 2,038 received the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which allowed researchers to objectively compare measures before and after the participants took the vaccine and confirm the safety of the vaccine.
Researchers also examined the safety of the booster by analysing the medical files of 250,000 members of Maccabi Health Services anonymously. Researchers tried to evaluate the safety of the vaccines from three perspectives -- subjectively (reported by participants), objectively (what the watch detects) and clinically (what the doctor diagnoses).?
Professor Dan Yamin from Tel Aviv University, explained, "The smartwatches were used to monitor a number of parameters such as heart rate, variation in heart activity, quality of sleep, number of daily steps taken, and more. We saw clear and significant changes after administration of the vaccine, such as an increase in heart rate compared to the pulse rate measured before vaccination, and then we saw a return to the participant's baseline, i.e., the pulse levels after vaccination returned to their previous levels after six days. Hence, our study confirms the safety of the vaccine.¡±
Researchers were surprised to discover that the watches were more sensitive than the people they were monitoring.
Yamin added, "In contrast, from examining their watches, we saw distinct changes in heart rate that continued for several more days. There were also vaccinated participants who did not report any side effects at all and yet definitely experienced physiological changes, based on data from their smartwatches. In other words, we learned that the smartwatches were more sensitive to changes in general feeling than the participants themselves."?
Medical literature has reported 25 unusual side effects linked to the novel coronavirus vaccine. Researchers looked for rare instances of inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis. They checked the frequency of these unusual side effects among a quarter of a million Maccabi members and found no increase in serious incidents of any kind linked with vaccination.