Vaccine-related Aluminum exposure closely associated with asthma: Study

A new study conducted by Matthew Daley and colleagues showed a close link between aluminum exposure from vaccinations and persistent asthma. The findings of this study were published in The Official Journal of the Academic Pediatric Association.

Although the childhood immunization schedule is safe and effective, and vaccination rates among US children are still high in comparison to historical averages, sustaining high vaccination rates necessitates maintaining public faith in vaccine safety. This study looked at the relationship between cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccines before the age of 24 months and the incidence of persistent asthma from 24 to 59 months.

The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) conducted a retrospective cohort analysis. Utilizing vaccination records, the total milligrams of aluminum connected with vaccines were calculated (mg). The definition of persistent asthma calls for either one inpatient or two outpatient asthma visits, as well as two prescriptions for long-term asthma control medication. Stratified by the presence or absence of eczema, Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the relationship between aluminum exposure and the incidence of asthma. In order to account for factors like as birth month/year, sex, race/ethnicity, VSD location, preterm, medical complexity, food allergy, severe bronchiolitis, and health care use, adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) per 1 mg increase in aluminum exposure were determined.

The key findings of this study were:

1. The cohort included 326,991 kids, and 14,337 (4.4%) of them had eczema.

2. The average level of aluminum exposure from vaccines was 4.07 mg (SD 0.60) for kids with eczema and 3.98 mg (SD 0.72) for kids without dermatitis. 6.0% and 2.1%, respectively, of children with and without eczema had chronic asthma.

3. Children with eczema had a positive correlation between vaccine-associated aluminum and ongoing asthma, while children without eczema also showed a strong correlation.

These results do not provide significant support for doubting the safety of aluminum in vaccinations given the tiny impact size seen and the constraints mentioned above, particularly in relation to unmeasured confounding. However, it is necessary to investigate this theory further. Studies using other big databases, particularly those from various European nations, may be able to answer this question, and the different vaccination schedules in Europe and the US may offer useful variation in aluminum adjuvant exposure.

Reference:

Daley, M. F., Reifler, L. M., Glanz, J. M., Hambidge, S. J., Getahun, D., Irving, S. A., Nordin, J. D., McClure, D. L., Klein, N. P., Jackson, M. L., Kamidani, S., Duffy, J., & DeStefano, F. (2022). Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months. In Academic Pediatrics. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2022.08.006