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. 2015 Jan;52(1):25-30.
doi: 10.1007/s13312-015-0561-x.

Association between dietary habits and asthma severity in children

Denise Halpern Silveira  1 , Linjie Zhang, Silvio O M Prietsch, Amilcare Angelo Vecchi, Lulie Rosane Odeh Susin
Affiliations
Free article

Association between dietary habits and asthma severity in children

Denise Halpern Silveira et al. Indian Pediatr. 2015 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Objective: To investigate association between dietary habits and asthma severity in children.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Two teaching hospitals in Brazil.

Participants: Cases (n=268) were children (3-12yr) with persistent asthma and age-matched controls (n=126) were those with intermittent asthma.

Main outcome measures: Dietary habits were determined based on food consumption in the past 12 months classified as frequent (≥3 times per week) or infrequent (never or <3 times per week).Nutritional status was classified into two categories according to WHO Child Growth Standards: obese: >2Z-score of BMI-for-age; non-obese: ≤2Z-score of BMI-for-age.

Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, maternal smoking during pregnancy, preterm birth and obesity were significantly associated with persistent asthma, with adjusted ORs (95% CI) of 2.11 (1.08- 4.13), 2.61(1.07-6.35) and 2.89 (1.49-5.61), respectively. No significant association was observed between frequency of consumption of specific foods, food groups, or dietary pattern (pro- or contra-Mediterranean diet) and the severity of asthma.

Conclusions: This study did not find a significant association between dietary habits and asthma severity in children. Maternal smoking during pregnancy, preterm birth and obesity were independent factors associated with persistent asthma.

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