Source: Annual Congress 2002 - Early influences on respiratory health and disease
Disease area: Airway diseases, Paediatric lung diseases

Abstract

The recent increase in asthma and allegry has been attributed to changing dietary intakes of antioxidants and lipids. The proposal that childhood infections influence allergy is supported by the adverse association between childhood antibiotic use and childhood allergy.We undertook a prospective study of 2,000 pregnant women recruited at random in early pregnancy (12-20 weeks). Dietary antioxidant and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intakes during pregnancy were assessed by way of a food frequency questionnaire. Serum antioxidant levels were also measured. Complete postal questionnaire follow-up data at 6 and 12 months of life was available for 1,499 babies born to the cohort. Logistic regression analysis, adjusting for gender, maternal atopy and parental smoking, indicated that wheezing during the second six months of life was associated with maternal serum vitamin E levels during pregnancy (OR per log10[α-tocopherol] 0.28, 95% CI 0.09-0.84). Maternal n-3 PUFA intake was negatively associated with wheeze in the first year of life (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.72-0.97). Breast feeding for more than 4 months protected against the development of wheeze in infancy (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.03-1.75). Antibiotic use by the child was associated with wheezing in the first year of life (OR 3.49, 95% CI 2.67-4.56). This association persisted after excluding for antibiotics given for chest conditions. This work demonstrates that maternal dietary antioxidant and lipid intake during pregnancy influences wheezing illness in infancy and raises the possibility of preventing childhood asthma by modifying diet during pregnancy. The results also highlight the influences of breast-feeding and antibiotic use during infancy.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
S. Fleming, G. McNeill, G. Devereux, G. Russell, A. Seaton (Aberdeen, United Kingdom). Associations between maternal diet and other risk factors with wheezing in the first year of life. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: Suppl. 38, 1133

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