Important insights into the factors contributing to sudden deaths among young adults in India indicated that while COVID-19 vaccination did not increase the risk of sudden death among healthy adults, other health and lifestyle factors appear to play a more prominent role in these events.
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This was revealed in a pre-review summary of a study titled, Factors associated with sudden deaths among adults aged 18–45 in India. The study is a multi-centric matched case-control study — conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The study which concluded this month notes that factors that did increase the chances of sudden death included having a family history of sudden death, being in the hospital for COVID-19 in the past, and certain behaviors like binge drinking and intense physical activity shortly before death.
This past week Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, also quoted the study and cautioned that individuals who have previously experienced a severe episode of COVID-19 should refrain from strenuous physical activity for a period of one to two years to reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiac arrests. Recently there have been multiple reports of heart-related deaths in Gujarat, during the Navratri festivities.
On COVID-19 vaccination
Meanwhile, key findings of the study also specifies that COVID-19 vaccination did not increase the risk of sudden death among young adults in India. In fact, COVID-19 vaccination reduced the risk of sudden deaths among adults, said the summary of the report.
Anecdotal reports of sudden death among healthy young adults in India led the researchers to conduct this investigation. These deaths raised concerns that they might be related to COVID-19 infection or COVID vaccination. The study was conducted to investigate the factors contributing to sudden unexplained deaths among healthy young adults in India,” explained a senior Health Ministry official.
The study included cases and controls with cases were the apparently healthy individuals aged 18-45 with no underlying health issues, died suddenly due to unexplained causes between October 1, 2021, and March 31, 2023.
For each case, four matched controls were selected based on age, gender, and locality.
Investigators enrolled 729 cases and 2,916 controls and collected information from both the cases and controls about things like their medical history, behaviours like smoking, alcohol use, and intense physical activity, whether they had been in the hospital because of COVID-19, and whether they had received doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
