JAMA Study: Kids With Fewer Vaccines Have Fewer Doctor and Emergency Room Visits

JAMA Study: Kids With Fewer Vaccines Have Fewer Doctor and Emergency Room Visits



Health Impact News Editor

JAMA Pediatrics published a new study today looking at vaccination
rates. The results of that study are making headlines throughout the
“mainstream” media outlets, but none of them have headlines like ours.
Yet, ours is probably the most factual headline representing the true
facts of what this study found.

The title of the study is: A Population-Based Cohort Study of Undervaccination in 8 Managed Care Organizations Across the United States – You can read the abstract here.
Rather than rely upon the press releases of the study which for the
most part were bemoaning the fact that children were not following the
national vaccine schedule and therefore representing a threat to the
existence of the human race, I decided to spend the $30.00 and download
the article to read for myself.

First of all, let’s look at the objective to the study as stated in the abstract:

<blockquote>To examine patterns and trends of undervaccination in
children aged 2 to 24 months and to compare health care utilization
rates between undervaccinated and age-appropriately vaccinated children.
</blockquote>
So why study “patterns and trends of undervaccination” in children? The introduction to the study gives us a clue:

<blockquote>Immunization is one of the most significant public health
achievements of the past 100 years. However, an increasing number
of parents have expressed concerns about immunizations, and
survey data1-5 have shown that more than 10% of parents report delaying
or refusing certain vaccinations for their children. These concerned
parents often request alternative vaccination schedules that either
increase the time between vaccinations or reduce the number of
vaccinations in a single well-child visit. Despite their
concerns, however, the safety of alternative vaccination schedules is
not known.
</blockquote>
Hmm… Any chance of bias in this study? Is “Immunization is one of the
most significant public health achievements of the past 100 years” a
scientific statement that can be proven by facts and figures? Is there a
chance that this study was conducted because the
medical institutions represented by the authors of this study do not
like the fact that parents are not bringing in their children to be
vaccinated enough according to the government vaccine schedule?

The authors also included this disclaimer which may give us a further clue:

<blockquote>Disclaimer: Although the CDC played a
role in the design and conduct of the study, collection,
management, analysis, and interpretation of the data, as well as
preparation, review, and approval of the manuscript, the findings and
conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the official position of the CDC.
</blockquote>
And then here are the “author affiliations”:

<blockquote>Author Affiliations: Institute for Health Research,
Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver (Drs Glanz, Narwaney, Hambidge,
Daley, McClure, and Xu and Mss Wagner and Newcomer); Department of
Epidemiology,
Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora (Drs Glanz and Hambidge);
Community Health Services, Denver Health, Denver (Dr Hambidge);
Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado, Aurora (Drs Hambidge
and Daley); Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, Oakland,
California (Dr Rowhani-Rahbar); Center for Child Health Care Studies,
Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Lee); Group
Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington (Dr Nelson); Marshfield Clinic
Research Foundation, Marshfield, Wisconsin (Dr Donahue); Kaiser
Permanente Northwest, Portland, Oregon (Dr Naleway); HealthPartners
Research Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Dr Nordin); Department of
Research and Evaluation, Southern California Kaiser Permanente,
Pasadena (Dr Lugg); and Immunization Safety Office, Division of
Healthcare Quality and Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia (Mr Weintraub).
</blockquote>
So I think it is safe to assume that this study was not conducted on
behalf of concerned parents who think the vaccine schedule is too much,
too fast. On the contrary, it appears that the study was hoping to prove
that the children of parents who do not follow the vaccine schedule are
less healthy than those who do follow the schedule.

But the study didn’t prove that, it proved the opposite:

<blockquote>Children who were undervaccinated because of
parental choice had significantly lower utilization rates of the ED
(emergency department visits) and outpatient settings—both overall and
for specific acute illnesses—than children who were vaccinated on time.
</blockquote>
So the author’s conclusions and those they hired to write the press
release on the study reported this, right? Wrong. Here is what the
abstract states as the conclusion of the study:

<blockquote>Conclusions Undervaccination appears to
be an increasing trend. Undervaccinated children appear to have
different health care utilization patterns compared with
age-appropriately vaccinated children.
</blockquote>
The main press release, which was picked up by Reuter’s and repeated in almost every major news outlet reads: “Close to half of kids late receiving vaccines: study”

Here are some other gems from the official press release spin on this
(that too many kids not vaccinating according to the vaccine schedule
is a public epidemic):

<blockquote>Researchers said that trend is cause for concern because
if enough kids skip their vaccines, whole schools or communities may be
at higher risk for preventable infections such as whooping cough and
measles.
</blockquote>
I don’t know who these “researchers” are, but they are NOT the
authors of the study and what was reported in the actual study. In fact,
one of the biggest vaccine stories in 2012 was how whooping cough
outbreaks were among those vaccinated for whooping cough, and how the vaccine was largely ineffective (See: Whooping Cough Spreads Among Pertussis Vaccinated and Vaccinated Population Contracting and Spreading Disease They were Vaccinated For).

So how did they handle the fact that those parents who chose to not
vaccinate according to the vaccine schedule had fewer hospital and
doctor visits? Here’s the spin on that:

<blockquote>Undervaccinated kids also tended to have fewer doctors’
appointments and emergency room visits than those who got their shots on
time, according to findings published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. That
could be because their parents more often turn to alternative or
complementary medicine when it’s an option, Omer said. Recent studies
have shown many parents are asking to delay or skip certain vaccines,
often citing safety concerns such as a link between vaccines and autism –
a theory which scientists now agree holds no water.
</blockquote>
So just by stating “scientists agree” that there are no safety
concerns or links between vaccines and autism, they completely ignore
all the scientists who DO believe there are safety concerns and links to
autism, and they also ignore the fact that the federal Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program has already awarded millions of dollars to families
of children with autism where the court has verified that they were
harmed by vaccines. (Story here.)

One other important fact to note about this study: It was done among
patients in “eight managed care organizations.” In other words, this
study looked at parents and children who were insured, and:

<blockquote>For inclusion, each child had to be continuously enrolled
in their MCO from at least ages 2 to 12 months. Children were followed
up for a maximum of 36 months, and follow-up stopped if a child’s
enrollment in his or her MCO was discontinued…To help ensure that
children were receiving primary care services within their MCO, they
also had to have at least 1 outpatient visit by age 12 months.
</blockquote>
So these were parents and children who believed in using the medical
system, participated in it, believed in vaccines to at least some
degree, and made regular visits to approved medical professionals. Does
that sound like parents who ”more often turn to alternative or
complementary medicine when it’s an option”?? Parents who do not believe
in vaccines at all, do not participate in well-child pediatric visits,
were refused healthcare by their pediatricians for not following the
vaccine schedule, etc. – WERE NOT EVEN PART OF THE STUDY AT ALL!

Come on those of you in the media! Wake up and do some investigative
journalism for once! Pay the $30.00 to get the actual study and see what
it really says, instead of just regurgitating the spin from the press
release! This is a serious issue!! Just preceding the release of this
study today, the Institute of Medicine released a report last week that
the vaccination schedule was “safe,” but they offered no new research
what-so-ever. (See: Institute of Medicine Concludes Vaccinated versus Unvaccinated Research Not Needed: The Vaccine Schedule is Safe As Is)

There’s a huge story to report here, but dogma and belief in
vaccinations is trumping facts and science. The vaccine damaged epidemic
affects so many people and so many families now, however, that this
story is NOT going away anytime soon.


Source:-
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/jama-study-kids-with-fewer-vaccines-have-fewer-doctor-and-emergency-room-visits/