UC Research: Vaccinations of U.S. Children Declined after Publication of Now-Refuted Autism Risk
New University of Cincinnati research has found that fewer parents in the United States vaccinated their children in the wake of concerns about a purported link (now widely discredited) between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism.
Lenisa Chang, assistant professor of economics in UCs Carl H. Lindner College of Business, found that the MMR-autism controversy, which played out prominently in the popular media following publication in a 1998 medical journal, led to a decline of about two percentage points in terms of parents obtaining the MMR vaccine for their children in 1999 and 2000. And even after later studies thoroughly refuted the alleged MMR-autism link, the drop off in vaccination rates persisted.
For her study, The MMR-Autism Controversy: Did Autism Concerns Affect Vaccine Take Up? to be presented during the 4th Biennial Conference of the American Society of Health Economics June 10-13 in Minnesota, Chang examined data from the National Immunization Survey from 1995 through 2006 to gauge parents response toward the vaccine-autism controversy.
Interestingly, in the aftermath of the controversy, Chang found that the higher a mothers education level, the less likely a child was to receive an MMR vaccination. In other words, college-educated mothers were less likely to have their children vaccinated than were non-college education mothers. This may be due to the fact that more educated mothers have better access and/or more quickly absorb medical information available in the media.
After epidemiological studies refuted the MMR-autism link, the difference in MMR usage by mothers education level persisted and became more pronounced in 2003, 2004 and 2006, possibly as previous negative information received more weight than positive information in the parental decision-making process on whether or not to vaccinate.
She also found that the controversy, begun with the publication of research (later discredited) linking the MMR vaccine to risks for autism in The Lancet medical journal, seemingly had a spillover effect to other vaccinessuch as polio or other measles-containing vaccineslikely as a result of concern for safety over the MMR controversy.
Chang says the decline is a significant decrease and attributes the spillover effect to parental concerns.
The spillover effect I find on other vaccines such as polio and, to a lesser degree DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), could be partially ascribed to general safety concerns toward all vaccines that stemmed from the MMR controversy, but other factors might be at play as well, Chang says.
In other related work, Chang is researching the effect on immunization rates of state mandates that require insurance companies to cover childhood vaccines.
Related Stories
UC celebrates record graduating class at commencement
April 25, 2024
UC celebrated its doctoral hooding and master's recognition ceremony at Fifth Third Arena as part of its three-day commencement for the largest graduating class in university history.
The 2024 Toast recognizes achievements of Lindner’s Business...
April 25, 2024
The Carl H. Lindner College of Business Office of Inclusive Excellence hosted its annual Toast event for the Business Fellows program April 18 at The Graduate Hotel Cincinnati.
2024 Daniel Drake Medals to be awarded April 27
April 24, 2024
The UC College of Medicine will award three people with 2024 Daniel Drake Medals April 27.