Maternal antioxidant intake in pregnancy and wheezing illnesses in children at 2 y of age

• Published in: The American journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 84; no. 4; pp. 903 - 911
• Main Authors: Litonjua, Augusto A, Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L, Ly, Ngoc P, Tantisira, Kelan G, Rich-Edwards, Janet W, Camargo, Carlos A. Jr, Weiss, Scott T, Gillman, Matthew W, Gold, Diane R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bethesda, MD American Society for Nutrition 01.10.2006; American Society for Clinical Nutrition; American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc
• Subjects: administration & dosage; Adult; Antioxidants; Antioxidants - administration & dosage; Asthma; Biological and medical sciences; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Cohort Studies; diet; diet study techniques; Dietary Supplements; Eczema; Eczema - prevention & control; epidemiological studies; Feeding Behavior; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Female; food intake; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; human diseases; Humans; hypersensitivity; infants; Logistic Models; Male; maternal nutrition; Mothers; Multivariate Analysis; nutrient intake; Odds Ratio; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Trimester, First; Pregnancy Trimester, Second; pregnant women; Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; prevention & control; Respiratory Sounds; Risk Assessment; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; vitamin E; zinc; Human; Allergy; Immunopathology; Lung disease; Skin disease; Respiratory disease; antioxidants; Wheezing; Antioxidant; Feeding; Asthma; Pregnancy; childhood wheezing; Diet; Eczema; Bronchus disease; Obstructive pulmonary disease; Child; Age
• ISSN: 0002-9165; 1938-3207
• DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/84.4.903

BACKGROUND: Low intakes of dietary antioxidants may contribute to increases in asthma and allergy. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association of maternal total intakes (foods + supplements) of 10 antioxidant nutrients during pregnancy with wheezing and eczema in 2-y-old children. DESIGN: Subjects were 1290 mother-child pairs in an ongoing cohort study. Maternal dietary and supplement intakes were assessed by using a validated food-frequency questionnaire administered in the first and second trimesters. Antioxidant nutrient intakes were calculated, and the mean for each nutrient was considered to be the exposure during pregnancy. The outcomes of interest were any wheezing by the child during either the first or second year of life, recurrent wheezing in both years, and eczema in either the first or second year. RESULTS: No association was observed between maternal total intake of any antioxidant nutrient and eczema. In multivariate logistic regression models, the highest quartile compared with the lowest quartile of maternal total intakes of vitamin E [odds ratio (OR): 0.70; 95% CI: 0.48, 1.03] and zinc (OR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.88) was inversely associated with any wheezing at 2 y of age (P for trend = 0.06 and 0.01 over quartiles of intake for vitamin E and zinc, respectively). Similar results were obtained for recurrent wheezing at 2 y of age with vitamin E (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.90) and zinc (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.87) (P for trend = 0.05 and 0.06 over quartiles of intake for vitamin E and zinc, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that higher maternal total intakes of antioxidants during pregnancy may decrease the risks for wheezing illnesses in early childhood.