Prenatal Tdap and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Non-Association Worth Knowing About :

With the increased emphasis on immunizing pregnant women with the Tdap vaccine, it is not surprising that those who are anti-vaccine have begun to question whether vaccinating will result in an increased risk of children born with an autism spectrum disorder. Becerra-Culqui et al. (10.1542/peds.2018-0120) decided to answer that question by performing a retrospective cohort study of mother child dyads at Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals. Children born to women receiving maternal Tdap vaccine between 1/1/-2011 and 12/31/2014 were followed for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis through 6/30/17 or disenrollment from Kaiser Permante.  The bottom line of this study (that has lots to learn from it) is that there was no difference in the incidence rate of ASD between those vaccinated and those not vaccinated-- meaning no association between the prenatal Tdap vaccine and an increased risk of ASD. If you need to make a sharp point about the benefits of administering the Tdap vaccine prenatally to protect infants from possible pertussis infection, then this study will provide the shot in the arm you are looking for.