Childhood vaccinations and asthma. Issue 4 (August 2009)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: DeStefano, Frank
• Is Part Of: Pediatric health. Volume 3:Issue 4(2009)
• Page Start: 307
• Page End: 310
• Publication Date: 2009-08
• Subjects: allergy -- atopy -- immunization; Pediatrics -- Periodicals; 618.920005
• DOI: 10.2217/phe.09.27
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-5111

Abstract

Evaluation of: Spycher BD, Silverman M, Egger M, Zqahlen M, Kuehni CE: Routine vaccination against pertussis and the risk of childhood asthma: a population-based cohort study. Pediatrics 123(4), 944––950 (2009). Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood in developed countries and its prevalence has been increasing. It has been suggested that infant and childhood vaccinations may be contributing to the increasing prevalence of asthma. Since vaccination is universally recommended for infants, any association between infant vaccinations and the occurrence of a common serious condition, such as asthma, could be of considerable public health importance. Many studies have been conducted evaluating a possible association between vaccination and asthma and other allergic conditions. Spycher and colleagues recently published a study of whole-cell pertussis vaccination and risk of wheezing and asthma. The importance of this new study is that the investigators tried to overcome the limitations of previous studies of this question. Specifically, the study tried to minimize potential recall bias, healthcare utilization bias and ''reverse causation'' (a type of confounding by contraindication whereby children with early allergic symptoms or a family history of atopic disorders may be less likely to be vaccinated).