Childhood Vaccination and Type 1 Diabetes. Hviid A, Stellfeld M, Wohlfahrt J, and Melbye M. New England Journal of Medicine 2004;350(14):1398-1404
Is there a link between childhood vaccinations and the development of type 1 diabetes?
Danish researchers evaluated all children born in Denmark from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2001, for whom detailed information on both vaccinations and type 1 diabetes was available. The immunization schedule in Denmark is similar to, but different, than that used in the United States.
They compared immunization records with diagnosis of type 1 diabetes for all the children to find significant trends.
Type 1 diabetes was diagnosed in 681 children during 4,720,517 person-years of follow-up.
There were no more cases of type 1 diabetes among vaccinated children compared with unvaccinated children, thus showing no link between vaccination and the development of type 1 diabetes. The study also found that even in those children who were genetically predisposed—those who had a sibling with the disease—type 1 diabetes was not significantly associated with vaccination.
In addition, there was no evidence that the number of cases rose two to four years after vaccination with any vaccine.
This study was able to evaluate possible associations between childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes in an entire population. No causal relationship was found.
The IOM has previously concluded that the available data does not support a causal relationship between immunization and type 1 diabetes. This and other recent studies confirm that there is no causal relation between childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes.