Study Finds No Connection Between Antibiotic Use and Autoimmune Disease in Children

A groundbreaking retrospective cohort analysis of more than four million children conducted at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea offers compelling evidence that there is no significant association between early antibiotic exposure and heightened risk of autoimmune diseases in children.

In the study, researchers leveraged the comprehensive South Korea National Health Insurance Service-National Health Insurance Database, a mother-child linked insurance claims database that allowed researchers to identify cohorts of children born between April 2009 and December 2020 whose mothers received antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. After tracking these children’s health outcomes longitudinally for more than seven years, the study encompassed data on diagnoses of multiple autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), systemic lupus erythematosus and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

The statistical analyses employed adjusted for a wide range of potential confounders, including maternal health conditions, socioeconomic factors and delivery methods, to isolate the specific effect of antibiotic exposure. Findings revealed no significant increase in the overall incidence of autoimmune diseases among children exposed to antibiotics either prenatally or during early infancy. And, this null association persisted across diverse autoimmune conditions studied and held true even when stratified by the timing and extent of antibiotic use.

These results stand in contrast to earlier studies that reported a possible link between early antibiotic exposure and autoimmune risk. According to the researchers, such discrepancies likely reflect differing research methodologies, population characteristics and the complexities inherent in immune system development. They caution against oversimplified conclusions, suggesting that genetic susceptibility, indication for antibiotic treatment, environmental factors and microbiome diversity all interplay in nuanced ways that require further exploration.