No Link Between Vaccination and Autism — Even in High-Risk Children

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

Receipt of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is not associated with increased autism risk even among high-risk children, a JAMA study finds.

Researchers retrospectively studied over 95,000 children who were continuously enrolled in a large U.S. health plan from birth until at least age 5 years who also had older siblings enrolled in the health plan. Some 2% of the children had an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Overall, 1% of the children were diagnosed with ASD during follow-up. Children who received the MMR vaccine were no more likely to be diagnosed with ASD than unvaccinated children — a finding that held true even among children whose older siblings had autism.

An editorialist notes: "Taken together, some dozen studies have now shown that the age of onset of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, the severity or course of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, and now the risk of ASD recurrence in families does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children."