Unvaccinated children halve their risk of autism and ADHD

Children who have never been vaccinated are around 50 percent less likely to develop autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), a new study has found.

Rates of autism are around 0.84 percent among unvaccinated children—compared to 1.69 percent in the general population—and incidence of ADHD are also roughly half that of the national average in the US.

In fact, no unvaccinated child developed ADHD in the study that tracked 3,324 children who were cared for at Integrative Paediatrics, a private clinic in Portland, Oregon; of these, 2763 children had been given between one and 40 different vaccinations, and their health was compared to the 561 children who didn’t have any vaccinations. The children were born between 2008 and 2019.

Researchers from the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge in Pittsburgh ran all the known reactions to vaccinations, as identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), against both groups, and tracked the number of clinic visits.

The highest rates of clinic visits were among the children who had been given the most vaccines, and some of the most common issues included anaemia and respiratory infections, including colds and flu.

Developmental problems, including speech development, learning ability and social interaction, and seizures were also more common among the vaccinated group. However, rates in both groups were very low, and well below national averages, and this could be because of the vaccine spacing the clinic practises as well as the response of parents when the first signs of learning problems were detected.

Genetic and family history was similar in both groups, the researchers add, and each group had roughly the same number of boys and girls.

Their findings reflect those of a study carried out in 2017 that concluded that vaccinated children were five times more likely to suffer from learning difficulties and their risk of autism was four times greater than unvaccinated children.

(Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020; 17; 8674; doi: 10.3390/ijerph17228674)

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