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. 2022 Apr;10(4):1013-1019.e1.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2022.01.029. Epub 2022 Feb 2.

Diet, Asthma, and Severe Asthma Exacerbations in a Prospective Study of Puerto Rican Youth

Jessica Reyes-Angel  1 , Yueh-Ying Han  1 , Franziska Rosser  1 , Erick Forno  1 , Edna Acosta-Pérez  2 , Glorisa Canino  2 , Juan C Celedón  3
Affiliations

Diet, Asthma, and Severe Asthma Exacerbations in a Prospective Study of Puerto Rican Youth

Jessica Reyes-Angel et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Poor diet quality may contribute to the disproportionate asthma burden in Puerto Rican youth.

Objective: To examine whether an unhealthy diet at one or two study visits conducted over about 5 years was associated with asthma, severe asthma exacerbations, and worse lung function in Puerto Rican youth.

Methods: This was a prospective study of 406 Puerto Rican youth aged 6 to 14 years at a baseline visit and 9 to 20 years at a follow-up visit. As in prior work, diet was assessed using a dietary score ranging from -2 to +2. The exposure of interest was an unhealthy diet, defined as a nonpositive dietary score (0 to -2) at one or both visits. Outcomes of interest were asthma (defined as physician-diagnosed asthma and one of more episode of wheeze in the year before the second visit), one or more severe asthma exacerbation in the year before the second visit, and change in percent predicted lung function measures (FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC) between the first and second visits.

Results: In a multivariable analysis, an unhealthy diet at both visits was associated with increased odds of asthma (adjusted odds ratio = 3.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.74-6.57) and severe asthma exacerbations (adjusted odds ratio = 2.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-6.03), but not with change in lung function.

Conclusions: An unhealthy diet at both visits was associated with increased odds of asthma and severe asthma exacerbations, compared with a healthy diet at both visits. Our findings support health policies promoting a healthy diet in Puerto Rican youth, a population at high risk for asthma.

Keywords: Asthma; Asthma exacerbations; Children; Lung function; Puerto Rican; Unhealthy diet; Youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: Dr. Celedón has received research materials from GSK and Merck (inhaled steroids) and Pharmavite (vitamin D and placebo capsules), to provide medications free of cost to participants in NIH-funded studies, unrelated to this work. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

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