BCG Vaccine Does Not Affect Asthma Risk

The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has no effect on childhood asthma, according to the findings of a recent study.

While some studies have suggested that the BCG vaccine might have a protective effect on childhood asthma, the findings have been controversial. 
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To assess this association, the researchers analyzed the administrative data of 76,623 individuals involved in the Quebec Birth Cohort on Immunity and Health. They included data on individual perinatal and sociodemographic characteristics, BCG vaccination status, and use of health services for asthma in their analysis in order to adjust for potential confounders. Additionally, they assessed self-reported asthma risk factors provided by 1643 participants through telephone interviews.

Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios for asthma, which corrected for known fractions between the data and was stratified by sex.

A total of 35,612 individuals (46.5%) were BCG vaccinated, of whom, 5,870 individuals (7.7%) had asthma.

Overall, the final odds ratio was 0.95 and did not differ by sex.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest study ever conducted on this topic, and using the best possible comprehensive adjustment for confounders, we found no association between BCG vaccination and asthma” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

El-Zein M, Conus F, Benedetti A, Menzies D, Parent MR, Rousseau MC. Association between bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination and childhood asthma in the Quebec Birth Cohort on Immunity and Health. Am J Epidemiol. 2017;186;3: 344-355. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx088.