Abstract
An association between fiber intake and allergic diseases in children has been reported; however, many studies have not been conducted to assess this association in adults. We aimed to evaluate the association between dietary fiber intake and allergic diseases (asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis) among 10,479 adults using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010–2011). As dietary fiber intake increased, the prevalence of asthma (Q4 adjusted odds ratio (OR): 0.656; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.48–0.91, p for trend < 0.0001) and atopic dermatitis (Q3 crude OR: 0.746; 95% CI: 0.57–0.98; Q4 adjusted OR: 0.712; 95% CI: 0.50–1.01, p for trend < 0.0001) decreased. The prevalence of allergic rhinitis (Q2 adjusted OR: 0.840; 95% CI: 0.70–1.00, p for trend < 0.0001) tended to decrease, especially in males. Subgroup analysis revealed that fiber intake reduced allergic rhinitis symptoms, including watery rhinorrhea (Q3 adjusted OR: 0.734; 95% CI: 0.55–0.97; Q4 adjusted OR: 0.722; 95% CI: 0.54–0.97) and dog allergen sensitization (Q3 adjusted OR: 0.319; 95% CI: 0.13–0.82; Q4 adjusted OR: 0.338; 95% CI: 0.13–0.86), exclusively in males. Thus, dietary fiber intake influences allergic diseases in adults, especially males.
Highlights
Accepted: 10 March 2021Dietary fibers can be defined as a group of carbohydrates found in plant-origin foods that are not digested or absorbed by the human body [1]
Than the population without allergic rhinitis (2034.46 ± 829.07) (p = 0.013), whereas participants with asthma (1881.07 ± 759.46) had a lesser amount of energy intake compared to participants without asthma (1986.63 ± 866.53) (p = 0.003)
The amount of fiber intake was lesser in participants with either allergic rhinitis (p = 0.045), atopic dermatitis (p = 0.011) or asthma (p = 0.009)
Summary
Accepted: 10 March 2021Dietary fibers can be defined as a group of carbohydrates found in plant-origin foods that are not digested or absorbed by the human body [1]. Epidemiological studies have widely reported associations of dietary fiber intake with reduced risks of various diseases, including cardiovascular [3,4], metabolic [5,6], gastrointestinal [7,8], and pulmonary diseases [9] and malignancies [10,11]. As the prevalence of allergic diseases, including asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis, increases up to 40% in the global population [16], the importance of the association between dietary fiber intake and allergic diseases increases. Many studies evaluated the associations between dietary fiber intake and allergic diseases, including asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic disease, especially in the prenatal period and during infancy and childhood [17,18,19].
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