Are Vaccination Rates Affected By Autism Diagnosis?

After receiving a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), children with ASD and their younger siblings tend to be undervaccinated compared with the general population, according to new findings.

Researchers arrived at this conclusion following a study of 3729 children with ASD, 592,907 children without ASD, and their respective younger siblings.
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Participants included in the study were born between January 1, 1995, and September 30, 2010, and their younger siblings were born between January 1, 1997, and September 30, 2014.

Results revealed that children with ASD were significantly less likely to be fully vaccinated compared with children without ASD for vaccines recommended between ages 4 and 6 years (adjusted rate ratio [RR] 0.87).

Furthermore, vaccination rates were found to be significantly lower among younger siblings of children with ASD compared with younger siblings of children without ASD within each age category (adjusted RRs: 0.86 for siblings aged younger than 1 year to 0.96 for those aged 11 to 12 years).

Notably, the researchers found that parents of a child with ASD had higher odds of refusing at least 1 recommended vaccine for that child’s younger sibling and limiting the number of vaccines administered during the younger sibling’s first year of life.

“Children with ASD and their younger siblings were undervaccinated compared with the general population,” the researchers concluded. “The results of this study suggest that children with ASD and their younger siblings are at increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Zerbo O, Modaressi S, Goddard K, et al. Vaccination patterns in children after autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and in their younger siblings. JAMA Pediatr. 2018;172(5):469-475. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0082