Vaccine-Related Beliefs and Practices of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Although the assertion of a link between vaccines and autism has been scientifically rejected, the theory continues to be popular and may influence the attitudes of parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. The authors sought to assess how often parents change or discontinue their child's vaccine schedule after autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and whether beliefs about the etiology of autism affect their decision to do so. The authors surveyed 197 (43%) of 460 eligible parents of children under 18 years of age with autism spectrum disorders who were enrolled in a state-funded agency that provides services to those with developmental disabilities in western Los Angeles County. Half of the parents discontinued or changed vaccination practices, and this was associated with a belief that vaccines contributed to autism spectrum disorders, indicating a potential subset of undervaccinated children. Educational tools should be designed to assist physicians when talking to parents of children with autism spectrum disorders about vaccination.

Geographic and demographic correlates of autism-related anti-vaccine beliefs on Twitter, 2009-15

“…Across income categories, the correlation between anti-vaccine beliefs grew in a positive direction as household income increased (Table 2). No other race variables explained unique variance in the model despite what others have found regarding vaccine-related beliefs among Latinos and African Americans compared to non-Hispanic Whites (Bazzano et al, 2012). …”

“…Despite evidence against a causal link between childhood vaccines and ASD (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Institute of Medicine Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 2004; “Joint statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the United States Public Health Service (USPHS),” 1999; Stratton et al, 2012; Taylor et al, 2014), this belief remains (Bazzano et al, 2012; Fischbach et al, 2016) and is promulgated on online forums (Kata, 2012). Our results show that the volume of anti-vaccine tweets remained steady from 2009 to 2014.…”

Cochlear Implantation in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The fear of regression caused many parents of children with ASD to alter their vaccination practices 28 . According to Bazzano et al, half of parents of children with ASD discontinued or changed their vaccination practices for this reason 29 . While there is an obvious genetic component in cases of ASD, recent findings are in favor of interaction with some yet unknown specific environmental factors that may trigger the regressive form of autism in many cases and may explain the increase in prevalence in recent years 30 .…”

Emergence of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children from Simplex Families: Relations to Parental Perceptions of Etiology

“…Understanding parents' beliefs about the causes of ASD is critical, as attributions are associated with choice of treatments (Dardennes et al 2011;Levy and Hyman 2003), some of which lack support and may be harmful to the child (e.g., chelation; Baxter and Krenzelok 2008;Brown et al 2006). Additionally, parental beliefs about causes of ASD may influence engagement in publichealth-related behaviors (e.g., vaccinating children; Bazzano et al 2012;Rosenberg et al 2013), as well as familyplanning decisions.…”