Without Chickenpox Shot, Kids' Risk Rises Ninefold
Jan. 5 -- MONDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose parents refuse to have them vaccinated for chickenpox have a ninefold greater chance of contracting the disease than those who are vaccinated, a new study finds.
The finding should serve as a red flag for an increasing number of American parents who are foregoing child vaccinations for various reasons, experts said.
The new results could also "help parents make more informed decisions," said study senior author Jason Glanz, a research investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research in Denver and senior author of a report on the findings.
"When vaccines are discussed, parents are told about their benefits and possible risks," Glanz said. "They aren't told about the risks associating with not vaccinating."
He and his colleagues published their findings in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The Kaiser team have started a series of studies aimed at determining the risk involved in refusing vaccination for common childhood diseases. The first, published in 2009, found that children not given the vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) have a 23-fold higher risk for contracting the disease than children who were vaccinated.
In the new study, the researchers identified 133 confirmed cases of chickenpox, formally called varicella, among almost 87,000 children whose parents were members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan. They were compared with 493 children in the same age group who did not have the disease. Seven of the children with the disease, 5 percent of the group, had not been vaccinated, compared with just three -- or 0.6 percent -- of those who did not have chickenpox.
Glanz said that the number of parents who reject one or more vaccines for childhood diseases, including chickenpox, has increased. Ironically, one reason may lie in the vaccines' effectiveness.
"Immunization does such a good job of eliminating the disease that parents are less concerned about that risk," Glanz said. "Instead, concern has shifted to the safety of the vaccines."
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