Dietary patterns in patients with asthma and their relationship with asthma-related emergency room visits: NHANES 2005–2016

Abstract

Rationale Extensive interdependencies exist between dietary intake, metabolic dysregulation, and asthma; however, the dietary pattern in adults with asthma remains unknown. Objectives To evaluate the association between dietary patterns and asthma ER visits and explore the effect of the interaction between race and diet on asthma. Methods Using NHANES data, we compared dietary patterns between adults with asthma with and without asthma-related emergency room (ER) visits in the previous year, and between subjects of different races. The 2015 Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) was used to assess alignment between dietary patterns and the 2015–2020 Dietary Guideline for Americans. Results Among 1681 individuals included in the study, 193 reported asthma-related ER visit. Patients with asthma had low fruit and vegetable intake, and a low mean (SE) HEI-2015 score [52.6 (0.53)]. Individuals with asthma-related ER visits had lower vegetable consumption compared to those without (median 0.61 vs. 0.85 cup equivalents). Furthermore, non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) reported lower amount of vegetable (median cup equivalent 0.58 vs. 0.89) and fruit intake (0.17 vs. 0.39) and had a lower HEI-2015 score (49.9 vs. 52.9) comparing to non-Hispanic Whites. No association was discovered between dietary patterns and ER visits in multivariable analysis, or significant interactions between diet and race in predicting the need for ER visits. Conclusions Dietary patterns in adult with current asthma are frequently misaligned with current dietary guidelines. Patients with asthma-related ER visits and of NHB race had lower vegetable consumption; however, the associations disappeared in multivariable analysis. The impact of diet on asthma is not straightforward and deserves further investigation. Supplemental data for this article is available online at at www.tandfonline.com/ijas.