LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- New research suggests that vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is the first to examine both full and partial vaccination and the link to major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in the United States.

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used the U.S. National COVID Cohort Collaborative database. The study included 1,934,294 patients, 217,843 of whom received mRNA vaccine formulations by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or viral vector technology by Johnson & Johnson.

"We sought to clarify the impact of previous vaccination on cardiovascular events among people who develop COVID-19 and found that, particularly among those with comorbidities, such as previous MACE, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, liver disease, and obesity, there is an association with a lower risk of complications," said senior author Girish N. Nadkarni, professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

"While we cannot attribute causality, it is supportive evidence that vaccination may have beneficial effects on a variety of post-COVID-19 complications," he said.