The COVID vaccine is safer for kids’ heart health than if they become infected with the coronavirus, a new study has found.

Children who get COVID have an increased risk of rare heart complications including blood clots, heart inflammation and low platelet counts that lasts up to a year after their infection, researchers report in the December issue of the journal, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

By comparison, COVID vaccination caused only a short-term higher risk in heart inflammation that lasted about a month, researchers said.

“Although these conditions were rare, children and young people were more likely to experience heart, vascular or inflammatory problems after a COVID-19 infection than after having the vaccine — and the risks after infection lasted much longer,” lead researcher Alexia Sampri said in a news release.

She’s a senior health data scientist with the University of Cambridge in the U.K.