Table 3 Descriptive statistics of the absolute value of percentage changes in the relative reporting frequency (RRF) per adverse event (AE) between 2017 and 2021 considering the total number of unique reports and the number of reports after excluding all reports containing solely coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines (in parenthesis).

From: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the spontaneous reporting and signal detection of adverse drug events

Statistical measures

Annual percentage change of RRF values over 919 AEs, includes all entries (excludes reports solely reporting COVID-19 vaccines)

2017–2018

2018–2019

2019–2020

2020–2021

Mean (%)

17.79 (17.79)

12.87 (12.87)

19.50 (19.50)

53.25 (23.10)

Std

20.07 (20.07)

17.51 (17.51)

30.44 (30.44)

138.73 (50.46)

Min

0.04 (0.11)

0.01 (0.01)

0.01 (0.00)

0.05 (0.01)

25%

6.59 (6.59)

4.08 (4.08)

7.80 (7.84)

20.02 (4.94)

50%

13.60 (13.60)

8.88 (8.93)

15.92 (16.00)

31.48 (11.74)

75%

22.21 (22.21)

15.08 (15.10)

24.26 (24.26)

41.66 (23.48)

Max

257.8 (257.81)

203.71 (203.70)

498.04 (498.18)

2143.79 (891.96)