Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Safety of BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in children with chronic kidney disease: a national population study from South Korea

  • Brief Report
  • Published:
Pediatric Nephrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

In South Korea, COVID-19 vaccination has been recommended to adolescents aged 12 − 17 since October, 2021. We aimed to assess the rate of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in South Korea, using national cohort data.

Methods

We retrieved the clinical information of adolescents 12 − 17 years old from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency-COVID19-National Health Insurance Service (K-COV-N) database, to calculate incidence rates of purpura and other hemorrhagic conditions, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), Kawasaki disease/multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), myocarditis and/or pericarditis, and anaphylaxis in adolescents with CKD, after BNT162b2 vaccination.

Results

Among the 2306 adolescents with CKD, 62.7% (n = 1446) had received the BNT-162b2 vaccine. GBS, Kawasaki disease/MIS-C, and anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock did not occur during the observation period. Purpura and hemorrhagic conditions were more frequent in the unvaccinated group (7/860 vs. 1/1446), while myocarditis/pericarditis was observed only in the vaccinated group (0/860 vs. 1/1446). Adjusted odds ratio for any of the two adverse events was lower in vaccinated adolescents than in the unvaccinated group which did not reach statistical significance (adjusted odds ratio = 0.14, 95% confidence interval: 0.02, 1.16, P = 0.068).

Conclusions

In this national cohort study of adolescents with CKD in South Korea, we observed no evidence of increased risk of adverse events following BNT162b2 vaccination. Our finding offers insights into the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, empowering adolescent patients with CKD and their caregivers to make informed decisions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the institutional policy of the National Health Insurance Sharing Service, but the aggregated data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. US Food and Drug Administration (2020) FDA takes key action in fight against COVID-19 by issuing emergency use authorization for first COVID-19 vaccine. FDA news release. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-key-action-fight-against-covid-19-issuing-emergency-use-authorization-first-covid-19. Accessed 30 Jul 2023

  2. Quiroga B, Soler MJ, Ortiz A, Martínez Vaquera S, Jarava Mantecón CJ, Useche G, Sánchez Márquez MG, Carnerero M, Jaldo Rodríguez MT, Muñoz Ramos P, Ruiz San Millán JC, Toapanta N, Gracia-Iguacel C, Aguilar Cervera MC, Balibrea Lara N, Leyva A, Rojas J, Gansevoort RT, de Sequera P, Collaborative Network SENCOVAC (2021) Safety and immediate humoral response of COVID-19 vaccines in chronic kidney disease patients: the SENCOVAC study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 37:1868–1878

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Ali K, Berman G, Zhou H, Deng W, Faughnan V, Coronado-Voges M, Ding B, Dooley J, Girard B, Hillebrand W, Pajon R, Miller JM, Leav B, McPhee R (2021) Evaluation of mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in adolescents. N Engl J Med 385:2241–2251

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Cho HK, Lee H, Choe YJ, Kim S, Seo S, Moon J, Choi EH, Kwon GY, Shin JY, Choi SY, Jeong MJ, You M (2022) Parental concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety and hesitancy in Korea: implications for vaccine communication. Epidemiol Health 45:e2023004

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Krishnasamy S, Mantan M, Mishra K, Kapoor K, Brijwal M, Kumar M, Sharma S, Swarnim S, Gaind R, Khandelwal P, Hari P, Sinha A, Bagga A (2022) SARS-CoV-2 infection in children with chronic kidney disease. Pediatr Nephrol 37:849–857

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Oh J, Lee W, Kim CJ, Kim YJ, Park H, Lee JH, Park MH, Lee S, Ha E, Lee KA (2023) COVID-19, maternal, and neonatal outcomes: National Mother-Child Cohort (NMCC) of K-COV-N cohort in South Korea. PLoS One 18:e0284779

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Fraiman J, Erviti J, Jones M, Greenland S, Whelan P, Kaplan RM, Doshi P (2022) Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults. Vaccine 40:5798–5805

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Sun JW, Bourgeois FT, Haneuse S, Hernández-Díaz S, Landon JE, Bateman BT, Huybrechts KF (2020) Development and validation of a pediatric comorbidity index. Am J Epidemiology 190:918–927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tsabouri S, Makis A, Kosmeri C, Siomou E (2021) Risk factors for severity in children with coronavirus disease 2019: a comprehensive literature review. Pediatr Clin North Am 68:321–338

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Glenn DA, Hegde A, Kotzen E, Walter EB, Kshirsagar AV, Falk R, Mottl A (2021) Systematic review of safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with kidney disease. Kidney Int Rep 6:1407–1410

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Bouwmans P, Messchendorp AL, Sanders JS, Hilbrands L, Reinders MEJ, Vart P, Bemelman FJ, Abrahams AC, van den Dorpel MA, Ten Dam MA, de Vries APJ, Rispens T, Steenhuis M, Gansevoort RT, Hemmelder MH (2022) Long-term efficacy and safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with chronic kidney disease, on dialysis or after kidney transplantation: a national prospective observational cohort study. BMC Nephrol 23:55

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Gargano JW, Wallace M, Hadler SC, Langley G, Su JR, Oster ME, Broder KR, Gee J, Weintraub E, Shimabukuro T, Scobie HM, Moulia D, Markowitz LE, Wharton M, McNally VV, Romero JR, Talbot HK, Lee GM, Daley MF, Oliver SE (2021) Use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after reports of myocarditis among vaccine recipients: update from the advisory committee on immunization practices - United States, June 2021. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 70:977–982

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Jdiaa SS, Mansour R, El Alayli A, Gautam A, Thomas P, Mustafa RA (2022) COVID-19 and chronic kidney disease: an updated overview of reviews. J Nephrol 35:69–85

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Wang CS, Doma R, Westbrook AL, Johnson J, Anderson EJ, Greenbaum LA, Rana SA, George RP, Garro R, Khanna-Farber A, Escoffery C, Bednarczyk RA (2023) Vaccine attitudes and COVID-19 vaccine intention among parents of children with kidney disease or primary hypertension. Am J Kidney Dis 81:25-35.e21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Lee M, Seo S, Choi S, Park JH, Kim S, Choe YJ, Choi EH, Kwon GY, Shin JY, Choi SY, Jeong MJ, Lee H, You M (2022) Parental acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination for children and its association with information sufficiency and credibility in South Korea. JAMA Netw Open 5:e2246624

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety from 2022–2025 (22183MFDS433).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Young June Choe and Yo-Han Ahn contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

    Young June Choe

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Yo-Han Ahn

  3. Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Eunsun Gwak & Seung-Ah Choe

  4. Department of Statistical Analysis, Zarathu Co., Ltd, Seoul, South Korea

    Eunseo Jo & Jinseob Kim

Authors
  1. Young June Choe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yo-Han Ahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eunsun Gwak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Eunseo Jo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jinseob Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Seung-Ah Choe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seung-Ah Choe.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Choe, Y.J., Ahn, YH., Gwak, E. et al. Safety of BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in children with chronic kidney disease: a national population study from South Korea. Pediatr Nephrol 39, 625–629 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-023-06195-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-023-06195-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation