Pertussis vaccination in infancy doesn't appear to increase the risk of wheezing or asthma during childhood and, in fact, may be slightly protective against the disorders, a large population-based study concluded.
The analysis by Ben D. Spycher, a researcher at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and his colleagues, was based on data from Britain's National Health Service and from a large respiratory cohort study. It compared rates of new-onset wheeze and asthma occurring after 4 months of age with pertussis vaccinations in 6,048 children who were followed for up to 10 years (Pediatrics 2009;123:944–50).
There were 2,426 cases of new-onset wheeze in the group. In both time frames, the univariate analysis showed that children who were fully vaccinated were slightly, but not significantly, less likely to develop wheezing. The slight, nonsignificant, protective factor remained for both time frames in the multivariate analysis.
The outcomes were similar for diagnosed asthma, the authors noted. A sensitivity analysis suggested that exposure to other vaccines administered concurrently yielded similar results. The work was supported by national grants from Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The authors declared no conflicts.