A new Kaiser Permanente research published today in JAMA Pediatrics claims that compared to the general populations, it is most likely that complete vaccination would be possible for children who have autism and their younger siblings.

“In this large and comprehensive study, we found that after children received an autism diagnosis, the rates of vaccination were significantly lower when compared with children of the same age who did not have an autism diagnosis,” said lead author Ousseny Zerbp, who is also a postdoctoral fellow with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

The study is titled “Vaccination Patterns in Children After Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and in Their Younger Siblings,” and was conducted on over 3,700 children who were victims of autism spectrum disorders and who had been diagnosed by the age of 5 years. It also included about 500,000 children form ye general population who were not born with ASD and born between Jan. 1, 1995 and Sept. 30, 2010. The study included the respective younger siblings born between Jan. 1, 1997 and Sept. 30, 2014.

The study first examined whether the children had been administered vaccines as advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Six places in the United States that participated in the Vaccine Safety Datalink of the CDC were chosen of the study. These were in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington and Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin.

“There were large disparities in vaccination rates between children with and without autism spectrum disorders, as well as between their siblings, across all age groups and after adjusting for important confounding factors,” said senior author Nicola Klein who is also the director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center.

For those children in the age group of 7 years or older, all of the vaccines that are recommended to be taken between 4 and 6 years of age were taken by 94 percent of those who did not have an ASD. On the other hand, among those with an ASD, 82 percent were given full vaccines. And compared to 84 percent of those with an ASD, 96 percent of those without an ASD received vaccinated for the measles, mumps, rubella (or MMR).

In comparison to younger siblings of children without ASD, younger siblings of children with ASD were found to have received lower numbers of full vaccination of the recommended vaccines when the proportion of the children who were fully vaccinated was concerned.

“Numerous scientific studies have reported no association between childhood vaccination and the incidence of autism spectrum disorders,” said co-author Frank DeStefano, “Nonetheless, this new study suggests that many children with autism and their younger siblings are not being fully vaccinated.

“We need to better understand how to improve vaccination levels in children with autism spectrum disorder and their siblings, so they can be fully protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded the study.

(Adapted from PRNewswire.com)