Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination and asthma-like disease in early childhood.
The authors evaluated the association between receipt of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and asthma-like disease in early childhood in a Danish nationwide cohort study (N = 871,234). Two outcomes were included: hospitalizations with asthma diagnoses and use of anti-asthma medications (for a subset of the cohort only). Poisson regression was used to estimate rate ratios according to vaccination status. MMR-vaccinated children were less often hospitalized with an asthma diagnosis (rate ratio (RR) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.73, 0.78) and used fewer courses of anti-asthma medication (RR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.91, 0.92) than unvaccinated children. This "protective" effect of MMR vaccine was more pronounced for hospitalizations with severe asthma diagnoses (status asthmaticus: RR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.82) and use of medication that was highly specific for asthma (long-acting beta2-agonist inhalant: RR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.63, 0.73). MMR vaccine was not negatively associated with anti-asthma medications often used for wheezing illnesses in early childhood (systemic beta2-agonist: RR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.02). These results are compatible not with an increased risk of asthma following MMR vaccination but rather with the hypothesis that MMR vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of asthma-like disease in young children.
Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark. aii@ssi.dk
Anders
A
Hviid
Mads
M
Melbye
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D022542:Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents; D022542:Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine