Abstract
BackgroundAsthma is one of the conditions that contributes to the global burden of respiratory diseases and has been previously associated with diet intake. The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between diet, assessed by a developed score, and asthma in Peruvian children.MethodsThis study was a cross sectional analysis nested within an unmatched case-control study of children in two peri-urban communities of Lima, Peru. We evaluated 767 children and adolescents (573 with asthma, 194 controls) between 9 and 19 years. Diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), with food groups classified as “healthy” or “unhealthy”. Asthma control, Lung function and atopy were assessed by Asthma Control Test, Spirometry and InmunoCAP 250 test, respectively.ResultsMean age of participants was 13.8 years (SD 2.6). Mean diet score was 5 (SD 1.23; range 2–8). Healthy Diet Score was associated with asthma status [OR 0.83, 95% CI (0.72, 0.95), p = 0.009] in adjusted analysis. Thus, participants with higher HDS, had lower odds of asthma. In sensitivity analyses, when adjusting for atopy, results did not change significantly. [OR 0.85, 95% CI (0.72, 0.99); p = 0.04]. No association between the HDS and asthma control, FEV1, nor FeNO were observed. Atopy did not modify the association between diet and asthma outcomes.ConclusionsIn our study cohort, better diet quality was associated with lower odds of asthma, but was not associated with asthma control. Diet modification may be a potential intervention to impact the increasing prevalence of this disease.
Highlights
Asthma is one of the conditions that contributes to the global burden of respiratory diseases and has been previously associated with diet intake
Previous work from our group suggests that adherence to a Mediterranean diet pattern may be associated with lower asthma prevalence in Peruvian children and adolescents [11]; but since the Mediterranean diet score is based on foods that are not frequently consumed in Peru it may not be Tarazona-Meza et al BMC Pulmonary Medicine (2020) 20:63 the most culturally appropriate dietary pattern classification to use in this population
While Body Mass Index (BMI) was higher among participants who completed the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) compared to participants who did not (22.0 vs. 21.5, p = 0.04); we did not find a statistically significant difference in those completing the FFQ for the sub-groups of participants with asthma (22.2 vs. 22.1, p = 0.79) and controls (21.4 vs. 21.3, p = 0.84)
Summary
Asthma is one of the conditions that contributes to the global burden of respiratory diseases and has been previously associated with diet intake. The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between diet, assessed by a developed score, and asthma in Peruvian children. Several studies [5,6,7] have shown an association between diet intake and asthma symptoms. It is important to characterize the dietary intake of a population using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) that lists locally available and culturally appropriate foods. The goal of this study was to use a locally prepared food frequency questionnaire, in order to devise a scoring system to represent the degree to which a participant’s diet was consistent with patterns that have been associated with chronic disease. We hypothesized that diet score that was reflective of overall healthier dietary patterns would be associated with lower odds of having ashma in children and adolescents
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