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High maternal vitamin D intake may reduce early childhood wheezing (Reuters Health)
March 22, 2007
www.reutershealth.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High intake of vitamin D during pregnancy appears to reduce the risk of recurrent wheeze or wheeze symptoms in early childhood, according to the findings of two studies reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition for March.
In the first study, Dr. Carlos A. Camargo, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues used a validated food questionnaire to assess vitamin D intake during pregnancy and then correlated this finding with recurrent wheeze in the offspring at 3 years of age. A total of 1194 mother-child pairs were included in the analysis.
Mean total vitamin D intake during pregnancy was 548 IU per day. Recurrent wheeze was identified in 186 children, the report indicates. Mothers in the highest quartile of vitamin D intake (median 724 IU/d) were 61% less likely to have a child with recurrent wheeze compared with those in the lowest quartile (356 IU).
For each 100-IU increase in vitamin D intake, the risk of having a child with recurrent wheeze fell by 19%. Moreover, this benefit was noted whether the vitamin D came from supplements or the diet.
"If others replicate our findings, we would support the initiation of randomized trials of vitamin D repletion in populations at high-risk of asthma morbidity and mortality," the authors conclude.
In the second study, Dr. Augusto A. Litonjua, from the Channing Laboratory in Boston, and colleagues examined the impact of maternal vitamin D intake on childhood wheezing symptoms at 5 years of age. The study involved 1212 mother-child pairs.
Compared with the lowest quintile, the highest quintile of vitamin D intake seemed to cut the risk of ever wheeze by 52%, wheeze in the previous year by 65%, and persistent wheeze by 64%. Lower vitamin D intakes were also tied to reductions in bronchodilator response.
"Our results are of great public health significance because they could lead to relatively low cost interventions of vitamin D supplementation that would have a large effect on the future prevalence of asthma in children," the researchers state.
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