Associations of intake of antioxidant vitamins and fatty acids with asthma in pre-school children

Abstract

Objective: Increasing childhood asthma rates may be due to changing dietary lifestyle. We investigated the association of dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins and fatty acids with asthma in Japanese pre-school children. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: School-based survey on lifestyle/diet and health status in children in Japan. Subjects: Parents of 452 children aged 3-6 years completed a questionnaire on the children's and parents' lifestyle and demographics. Children were classified into asthma cases and non-asthma cases in accordance with the ATS-DLD (American Thoracic Society and Division of Lung Diseases of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) questionnaire. Children's diet was assessed using a 3 d dietary record completed by parents. Children's age, sex, BMI, history of food allergy, maternal age, parental history of allergy, maternal education, family size and second-hand smoking were included as covariates. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between children's diet and asthma. Results: Compared with children with the lowest intake tertile for vitamin C and vitamin E, those in the highest were significantly inversely associated with asthma; adjusted OR (95 % CI) were 0? 35 (0?14, 0?88) and 0?32 (0?12, 0?85), respectively. A statistically significant trend was also observed. Fruit intake showed an inverse but insignificant association with asthma. There were no associations of any type of fatty acids with asthma. Conclusions: These data suggest that children with high intakes of vitamins C and E may be associated with a reduced prevalence of asthma.

EAACI position paper: Influence of dietary fatty acids on asthma, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis

“…However, daily n ‐3 and n ‐6 PUFA dietary intakes were not significantly different between sensitized wheezers compared with nonsensitized nonwheezy children . Similarly, no association was seen for fatty acids with a reduced prevalence of asthma in preschool children . Consumption of both n ‐3 and n ‐6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially LA, was associated with an increased prevalence of wheeze in Japanese children …”

γ-Tocotrienol reduces human airway smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration

“…Clinical trials of vitamin E supplementation have been performed because low levels of vitamin E have been reported in patients with asthma [16,17,51], but these trials have produced ambiguous results [10,17,52]. In these clinical trials, vitamin E supplementation was mostly comprised of a-tocopherol.…”

Serum carotenoid and tocopherol concentrations and risk of asthma in childhood: a nested case–control study

“…Whilst maternal dietary transfer during pregnancy to the fetus takes place via the placenta, dietary transfers during infancy and childhood are through the breastmilk and the child's gut, respectively. The associations between vitamin A and E exposures during early life and the risk of childhood asthma have been evaluated only by a few studies and results are inconsistent [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The associations between vitamin A and E exposures during early life and the risk of childhood asthma have been evaluated only by a few studies and results are inconsistent [18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Given these different routes of dietary transfer, the immunological effects of fetal dietary exposures may differ from dietary exposures during early life [17]. The associations between vitamin A and E exposures during early life and the risk of childhood asthma have been evaluated only by a few studies and results are inconsistent [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Most existing studies are however either retrospective case-control [18À20] or cross-sectional [21][22][23][24] in design.…”