Association between dietary carotenoid intakes and the risk of asthma in adults: a cross sectional study of NHANES, 2007-2012

Abstract

Background: In recent years, with the popularization of Western diet, the prevalence of asthma has continued to rise; Oxidative stress is thought to be an important mechanism of asthma. Carotenoids, as antioxidants, may reduce the risk of asthma, but previous studies have been controversial. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between dietary carotenoid intakes and asthma using data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.Methods: In this cross-section study, all the data were accessed from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007–2012. Asthma was defined by self -report questionnaires and the dietary carotenoids data were estimated from a 24-hour recall. Weighted multivariable linear regression models and the smooth curve fittings were applied to explore the association between total carotenoid intake, dietary carotenoid subgenera including (α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lutein with zeaxanthin, and lycopene) and the risk of asthma. Results: The present study included a total of 13039 participants, 1784 of whom were defined as having current asthma. Intakes of all kinds of carotenoids were lower in those participants with current asthma. The odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals of dietary α-carotene, dietary β-carotene, dietary β-cryptoxanthin, total lutein with zeaxanthin, total lycopene and total carotenoid intake for individuals with current asthma after adjusting the confounders in Model 3 were 0.80(0.67-0.95), 0.65(0.55-0.77), 0.67(0.53-0.83), 0.70(0.56-0.87), 0.76(0.60-0.98) and 0.60(0.48-0.75) in the highest versus lowest quartile, respectively. The smooth curve fittings suggested a nonlinear relationship between total carotenoid intake and the risk of current asthma.Conclusions: Higher intake of a-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein with zeaxanthin, and total carotenoid were associated with lower odds of having current asthma in the U.S. adults.