Fsadni Claudia, Fsadni Peter, Montefort Stephen, Fava Stephen
Department of Medicine, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta.
University of Malta Medical School, Msida, Malta.
Asia Pac Allergy. 2018 Oct 16;8(4):e35. doi: 10.5415/apallergy.2018.8.e35. eCollection 2018 Oct.
The prevalence of allergic conditions is increasing in most countries. One possible explanation may be childhood nutrition.
The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between consumption of pre-specified types of food in school-aged children and presence of respiratory and allergic symptoms.
A total of 191 students aged 9-11 years were recruited from 5 schools to geographically cover all of Malta. Data was collected between October 2011 and February 2012. This was part of a bigger study which included clinical and environmental tests besides standardized health questionnaires. For the purposes of this part of the study only the health questionnaires were used. These standardized health questionnaires based on the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) were used to identify the presence of respiratory and allergic symptoms and to identify the types of foods and the frequency of consumption of various types of foods.
We found that milk, meat, butter, olive oil, and yoghurt consumption had a negative association with allergic symptoms in children, whilst fish consumption had a detrimental effect. These relationships remained significant after correction for paternal level of education.
The study highlights the fact that nutrition in early childhood may have a significant effect on the risk of allergic conditions. Our results, taken together with data in the literature, suggest that different types of fish might have had different effects. This is probably related to their different fatty acid constitution thus warranting further studies.
在大多数国家，过敏疾病的患病率正在上升。一个可能的解释或许是儿童营养。
本研究旨在调查学龄儿童食用特定种类食物与呼吸道及过敏症状之间的关系。
从5所学校招募了总共191名9至11岁的学生，以覆盖整个马耳他地区。数据收集于2011年10月至2012年2月之间。这是一项更大规模研究的一部分，该研究除了标准化健康问卷外，还包括临床和环境测试。在本研究的这一部分中，仅使用了健康问卷。这些基于儿童哮喘和过敏国际研究（ISAAC）的标准化健康问卷，用于确定呼吸道和过敏症状的存在情况，并确定食物种类以及各类食物的食用频率。
我们发现，儿童食用牛奶、肉类、黄油、橄榄油和酸奶与过敏症状呈负相关，而食用鱼类则有不利影响。在对父亲的教育水平进行校正后，这些关系仍然显著。
该研究突出了幼儿期营养可能对过敏疾病风险产生重大影响这一事实。我们的研究结果与文献中的数据共同表明，不同种类的鱼类可能有不同的影响。这可能与它们不同的脂肪酸组成有关，因此值得进一步研究。
