Abstract
BackgroundEarly life exposure in the uterus had a long-term effect on children’s health. As the prevalence of allergies is increasing with a remarkable sex difference, very few studies have traced back to their early origins. We sought to investigate if maternal behavioral exposure, herein sleep, physical activity, and screen time during pregnancy is associated with childhood respiratory allergies. The sex difference would be examined.MethodsSix thousand two hundred thirty-six mother-child pairs from Shanghai Children Allergy Study (SCAS) were enrolled, The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire was adopted to evaluate respiratory allergic diseases.Results14.6, 16.2, and 21.0% of children had asthma, wheeze, and allergic rhinitis, respectively. Maternal short sleep duration, lack of physical activity, and too much screen exposure during pregnancy could increase the risk of childhood respiratory allergies, however, the significance was found only in males. Moreover, a dose-response trend was clearly shown, any two of the three combined could increase the risk (OR,1.921; 95% CI,1.217–3.033), and the coexistence of all three further amplified the risk (OR,2.412; 95% CI,1.489–3.906). The findings can be verified in allergen test subgroup and each single type of respiratory allergies in most cases.ConclusionsMaternal unhealthy behaviors during pregnancy could increase the risk of childhood respiratory allergies with a dose-response pattern. Males were more susceptible to the association. The identification of modifiable maternal risk behaviors lies in the emphasis of intervention in early life to face up increasing childhood allergies.
Highlights
The prevalence of childhood allergic diseases continues to rise with the development of economy and urbanization all around the world
It can be seen that, compared to females, males are more susceptible to all three respiratory allergies
Maternal behavioral exposure during pregnancy and childhood allergic diseases Individual associations In Table 3, we performed a sex-stratified analysis and found that maternal short sleep duration, lack of physical activity, and too much screen exposure during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of childhood respiratory allergies
Summary
The prevalence of childhood allergic diseases continues to rise with the development of economy and urbanization all around the world. Shanghai is one of the fastest urbanizing cities in China, where the prevalence of childhood asthma increased almost fivefold from 1990 to 2011 [3]. Data from a national survey covering 10 cities across China demonstrated that childhood allergic diseases, except for wheezing, were most prevalent in Shanghai [4]. Accumulating studies were providing evidence that early life exposure has short term effects on fetal growth and long-term impacts on individual’s health and disease susceptibility in later life [5]. As the prevalence of allergies is increasing with a remarkable sex difference, very few studies have traced back to their early origins.
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