Generation Rescue Commissions A Survey That Finds That Vaccinated Boys have 155% More Neurological Disorders like ADHD and Autism than Unvaccinated

Cal-Oregon Unvaccinated Survey

"We surveyed over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys." -Generation Rescue, June 26, 2007

Methodology

Generation Rescue commissioned an independent opinion research firm, SurveyUSA of Verona NJ, to conduct a telephone survey in nine counties in California and Oregon. Counties were selected by Generation Rescue. Interviews were successfully completed in 11,817 households with one or more children age 4 to 17. From those 11,817 households, data on 17,674 children was gathered. Of the 17,674 children inventoried, 991 were described as being completely unvaccinated. For each unvaccinated child, a heath battery was administered.

Generation Rescue chose to use telephone interviews with parents to gather data on children, so as to closely mirror the methodology the CDC uses to establish national prevalence for NDs such as ADHD and autism through their national phone survey of parent responses. Generation Rescue chose to focus on children ages 4-17 to match the age range used by CDC.

Are parent responses a reliable indicator of a child's diagnostic status? According to Dr. Laura Schieve, co-author of the CDC's national phone survey study, in discussing the CDC's two phone surveys on autism prevalence, "the consistency of prevalence estimates across the two surveys supports high reliability or reproducibility of parental report of autism and reliability is one important component of validity."

SurveyUSA is a well-known national opinion research firm with unique expertise in canvassing local communities. SurveyUSA has no vested interest in any outcome this or any survey might produce. You can see a copy of the questionnaire used in the survey here. The data the survey intended to capture included:

- Households with a child or children aged 4-17
- Whether or not that child had been vaccinated
- Whether or not that child had any one (or more) of the following diagnosis: ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, Autism, Asthma, or Juvenile Diabetes (the final two of which were added to consider other health outcomes).


The results of the survey allowed us to compare the prevalence (what percentage of children have a particular diagnosis) to see if there was any meaningful difference between unvaccinated and vaccinated children.

The most common way to measure prevalence differences is through a calculation known as relative risk or the Risk Ratio, where we compared prevalence amongst unvaccinated children to prevalence amongst vaccinated children. So, if 5% of unvaccinated children have asthma, and 10% of vaccinated children have asthma, that represents an "RR" of 2.0 (10%/5%), or a difference of 100%. We were also able to look at the data by gender, age, and county.

Results

SurveyUSA gathered data on 9,175 boys and 8,499 girls. Counties surveyed in California included:

San Diego
Sonoma
Orange
Sacramento
Marin


Counties surveyed in Oregon included:

Multnomah
Marion
Jackson
Lane


The results of the survey can be accessed as a pdf file here. This is the primary data we received from SurveyUSA and it can be used for anyone to independently analyze our results.

Generation Rescue analyzed the data provided by SurveyUSA, and a copy of our analysis can be found here. The most notable results of our survey are with the boys, which is not surprising considering boys represent approximately 80% of total cases of NDs. Namely:

All vaccinated boys, compared to unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55)
- Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24)
- Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61)


Older vaccinated boys, ages 11-17 (about half the boys surveyed), compared to older unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 158% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.58)
- Vaccinated boys were 317% more likely to have ADHD (RR 4.17)
- Vaccinated boys were 112% more likely to have autism (RR 2.12)

(Note: older children may be a more reliable indicator because many children are not diagnosed until they are 6-8 years old, and we captured data beginning at age 4.)


All vaccinated boys, removing one county with unusual results (Multnomah, OR), compared to unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 185% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.85)
- Vaccinated boys were 279% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.79)
- Vaccinated boys were 146% more likely to have autism (RR 2.46)


All vaccinated boys and girls, compared to unvaccinated boys and girls:
- Vaccinated boys and girls were 120% more likely to have asthma (RR 2.20)
- No correlation established for juvenile diabetes


All vaccinated girls, compared to unvaccinated girls:
- No meaningful differences in prevalence were noted for NDs (which may be due to the smaller sample size of the study because girls represent about 20% of cases.)