Apart from keeping you safe from the lethal disease, COVID-19 vaccination may also improve the psychological well-being as a new study has found that those who received at least one vaccine dose were associated with statistically significant declines in multiple psychological distress factors.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicated that vaccination, among study participants, was associated with declines in distress and perceived risks of infection, hospitalisation and death. "Our study documents important psychological benefits of vaccination beyond reducing the risk of severe illness and death associated with COVID-19," said lead investigator Jonathan Koltai, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, US.

For the study, data from a nationally representative study of 8,090 adults who were interviewed regularly between March 2020 and June 2021, revealed declines in COVID-related risk perceptions and psychological distress following vaccination. Specifically, adults who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine between December 2020 and June 2021 reported a seven per cent relative reduction in mental distress, as measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire 4 (PHQ-4) distress scores, from average levels in the survey period immediately before vaccination.

Reductions in distress were partially explained by declining risk perceptions following vaccination. Becoming vaccinated was associated with a 7.77 percentage point decline in perceived risk of infection, a 6.91 percentage point decline in perceived risk of hospitalisation, and a 4.68 percentage point decline in perceived risk of death. Adjusting for risk perceptions decreased the vaccination-distress association by 25 per cent.

These effects persisted and became stronger up to at least eight weeks following vaccination. It is noteworthy that while responses from vaccinated and never-vaccinated participants followed similar trends pre-vaccination, they significantly diverged post-vaccination. Becoming vaccinated made people feel safer in addition to being safer.