This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Prenatal Tdap vaccination not associated with autism in kids
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Immunizing pregnant women with Tdap is not related to an increased risk of later autism spectrum diagnoses in their offspring, according to research published in Pediatrics.
“With this information, physicians can inform patients that the Tdap vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of autism and that a prenatal Tdap vaccination program or bridged access to the vaccine is supported in this important time when waning immunity places infants at risk for contracting pertussis,” Tracy A. Becerra-Culqui, PhD, MPH, OT/L, a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told Infectious Diseases in Children.
The researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine the relationship between maternal vaccination with Tdap and later ASD diagnosis in their children. Becerra-Culqui and colleagues included pairs of mothers and children who were delivered between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2014. All births occurred at Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals.
Mothers who were prenatally vaccinated were most likely to be Asian American or Pacific Islander, attained higher levels of education, were vaccinated against influenza while pregnant and delivered their child at term. Of the births included in the analysis, 1.6% of children were diagnosed with ASD, with an incidence rate of 3.78 per 1,000 person years. When mothers were not vaccinated, the researchers observed an incidence rate of 4.05 per 1,000 person years (HR = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.88-1.09).
Becerra-Culqui and colleagues observed through an inverse probability of treatment weighting-adjusted analyses that maternal Tdap vaccination was not related to an increased risk of ASD diagnosis in their children (HR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.77-0.95).
“I think when making any health care decision, information is key, specifically when talking to pregnant women about the risks and benefits of the vaccine,” Becerra-Culqui said. “This study did not identify a risk of autism when exposing infants to the Tdap vaccine in utero, and the benefit of protecting them from pertussis far outweighs any real or perceived risk.”– by Katherine Bortz
Disclosures: Becerra-Culqui received funding from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals for a separate study of a Tdap during pregnancy. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts