Association between maternal influenza vaccination during pregnancy and health status in early childhood

Mehrabadi A, Dodds L, MacDonald NE, et al. Association between maternal influenza vaccination during pregnancy and health status in early childhood. JAMA. 2021;325(22):2285-2293. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.6778

The conclusions of this population-based cohort study explain that over a mean follow-up period of 3.6 years, maternal influenza vaccination during pregnancy was not significantly associated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes in young children.

The study.

aimed to evaluate the association between maternal influenza vaccination during pregnancy and health status in early childhood.

Of the 28,255 children (49% female, 92% born at 37 weeks or more of gestation), 10,227 (36.2%) were born to women who were vaccinated against seasonal flu during pregnancy. During a mean follow-up of 3.6 years, there was no significant difference between maternal influenza vaccination and childhood asthma (incidence, 3.0 versus 2.5 per 1000 person-years; difference, 0.53 per 1000 person-years [95% CI, -0.15 to 1.21]; adjusted HR, 1.22 [95% CI, 0.94 to 1.59 adjusted HR, 1.22 [95% CI, 0.94 to 1.59]), neoplasm (0.32 versus 0.26 per 1000 person-years; difference, 0.06 per 1000 person-years [95% CI, -0.16]; adjusted 0.26 HR, 1.26 [95% CI, 0.57 to 2.78]), or sensory impairment (0.80 versus 0.97 per 1000 person-years; difference, -0.17 per 1000 person-years .17 [95% CI, -0.54 to 0.21]; adjusted HR, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.49 to 1.37]).

Although no reason to discontinue influenza vaccination can be found based on these results, caution should be exercised in interpreting these results, as the data are limited to seasonal influenza vaccine and it is unclear whether the results would be similar for other vaccines.