The study covered in this summary was published on Preprints With The Lancet as a preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed.
Key Takeaways
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Data from a registry of nearly all Swedish children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during 2009–2019 showed no significant associations between rotavirus vaccination and incidence of type 1 diabetes nor with clinical manifestations at onset of type 1 diabetes.
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These findings add to the evidence that vaccination against rotavirus has no effect on the incidence of type 1 diabetes.
Why This Matters
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Results from some prior studies indicated a reduced incidence of type 1 diabetes following rotavirus vaccination, while findings from other studies showed no relationship.
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The current study included almost all newly diagnosed children with type 1 diabetes in Sweden during the 5 years before and the 5 years after introduction of rotavirus vaccination.
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The authors highlighted that rotavirus vaccination is of great value but for reasons other than prevention of type 1 diabetes.
Study Design
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The study used data collected from 7893 children in a Swedish national registry, SWEDIABKIDS, which included 98% of Swedish children younger than 15 years diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during 2009–2019.
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Data on Swedish rotavirus vaccine coverage came from Swedish Child Health Services agency. Swedish children began receiving rotavirus vaccinations in two Swedish regions in 2014, and by 2019, vaccinations had occurred nationwide.
Key Results
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Average incidence rates of type 1 diabetes per 100,000 were 27.91 for children 0–4.9 years old, 46.45 for those 5–9.9 years old, and 54.55 for children 10–14.9 years old.
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Among those receiving rotavirus vaccination beginning in 2014, incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for type 1 diabetes compared with unvaccinated children during the years 2009–2014 and 2015–2019 were 0.86 (P = .10), 0.98 (P = .81), and 0.84 (P = .02) for children 0–4.9 years old, 5–9.9 years old, and 10–14.9 years old, respectively.
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Rotavirus vaccination became available to Swedish infants starting in 2014, so vaccinated children reached a maximum of 5 years old by 2019. Thus, if the rotavirus vaccine reduced type 1 diabetes incidence, this effect would have appeared in children 0–4.9 years old by 2019, but there was no such reduction, with a nonsignificant IRR of 0.86.
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Among children who didn’t start to receive the rotavirus vaccine until 2019, IRRs between the two periods for the three age groups were 0.87 (P = .06), 0.83 (P < .01), and 1.02 (P = .77), respectively.
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Analysis showed no differences among the vaccine subgroups in mean pH or A1c levels at the time of type 1 diabetes diagnosis, nor any change in those values before and after vaccine introduction, and there was no significant difference in incidence of ketoacidosis at diabetes onset between the three groups during both 2009–2014 and 2015–2019.
Limitations
Disclosures
This is a summary of a preprint research study, “No Association Between Incidence of Type 1 Diabetes and Rotavirus Vaccination in Swedish Children,” by researchers at Linköping (Sweden) University on Preprints with The Lancet and provided to you by Medscape. It has not yet been peer reviewed. The full text of the study can be found on researchsquare.com.
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