Intake of antioxidants during pregnancy and the risk of allergies and asthma in the offspring

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The potential immune functions related to the damages induced by oxygen-free radicals suggest that antioxidants may have a role in the development of allergies. The objective was to investigate the association between maternal intake of antioxidants during pregnancy and the risk of asthma, rhinitis and eczema in 5-year-old children. Subjects/Methods: This study was on the basis of the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Nutrition Study, a population-based birth cohort study with 5-year follow-up. Complete information on maternal food frequency questionnaire data and ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood)-based allergic outcomes were available for 2441 children. Cox proportional regression and logistic regression were used for the analyses. Results: Maternal intake of any of the antioxidants was not significantly associated with the risk of asthma, rhinitis or eczema in the offspring, except for dietary intake of magnesium, which was independently associated with protection against eczema (OR 0.78; 95% CI 0.62-0.97). Conclusion: Maternal intake of dietary magnesium during pregnancy may protect against the risk of eczema in the offspring. We did not confirm previous observations concerning other antioxidants. This may be due to the variable amount of antioxidant intake across studies and also indicative of the hypothesis that there may be a critical time window in pregnancy during which antioxidants might modify the risk of allergies in the offspring.

Maternal Folate Intake during Pregnancy and Childhood Asthma in a Population-based Cohort

“…Two previous studies of children's asthma at school age used FFQs to assess folate intake amounts from food and supplements, as in our study, during pregnancy (31,32). Nwaru and colleagues (31) studied children at age 5 years in Finland and found no association of total folate intake with asthma.…”

Does maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation affect outcomes in offspring? A systematic review of food-based approaches

“…One intervention and seven other studies were excluded [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The intervention study reported the outcomes of an intervention based on a supplement rather than food; seven cohort studies reported dietary intakes in terms of nutrients rather than foods.…”

Maternal vitamin D and E intakes during pregnancy are associated with asthma in children

“…Three studies have reported maternal vitamin E intake not to be associated with childhood outcomes, although one highlighted their poor FFQ validity for vitamin E [21], another's FFQ was not validated for vitamin E [22] and the third only reported 1 year outcomes [20].…”

“…Several have reported lower maternal dietary vitamin D intake during pregnancy to be associated with an increased risk of wheeze, asthma, eczema and atopic sensitisation in children up to the age of 7 years [2][3][4][5][6]; although maternal and/or umbilical cord blood 25-hydroxy-vitamin D 3 (25(OH)D 3 ) has been reported to be either not [7][8][9][10], adversely [11][12][13] or beneficially [14][15][16][17] associated with respiratory and/ or atopic outcomes up to the age of 9 years. Several studies have reported lower maternal dietary vitamin E intake during pregnancy to be either associated with an increased risk of wheezing at age 2 years [18,19] or not associated with asthma or atopic outcomes at age 1, 5 or 7 years [20][21][22].…”