A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association may give a definitive answer to the vaccine-autism debate.

Study authors surveyed 95,000 American children who received the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, including a large sample of children whose older siblings had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Their findings:

"In this large sample of privately insured children with older siblings, receipt of the MMR vaccine was not associated with increased risk of ASD, regardless of whether older siblings had ASD. These findings indicate no harmful association between MMR vaccine receipt and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD."

Less than 1,000 children in the study were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder after receiving the vaccine. The results are on par with a previous study by the Centers for Disease Control, which found that approximately 1% of the world population suffers from an autism spectrum disorder.