Abstract
BackgroundSome health behaviours are liable to affect the incidence of allergies and/or common infections in young people; however, the extent and ways in which these might occur are mostly unknown. This study examines the association of health behaviours related to physical activity, sedentariness, diet and sleep with allergy and infection symptoms in adolescents, and also with biological markers that might mediate disease incidence.MethodsThe study comprised a total of 2054 adolescents (50.7% girls) from the Madrid region of Spain. The incidence of infection and allergy symptoms three months prior to the study was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire. Physical and sedentary activities, height and weight, food habits and sleep duration were also self-reported and their influence on infection and allergy incidence was assessed by logistic regression analysis. Blood biomarkers (IgE, eosinophil percentage, leptin, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10) were evaluated in a subsample of 198 subjects.ResultsAdequate sleep duration (OR = 0.79, 95%CI: 0.64 to 0.97) and unhealthy weight status (overweight/obesity) (OR = 1.35, 95%CI: 1.04-1.74) were independently associated with decreased and increased allergy incidence, respectively. No significant association was observed with infection incidence. IgE and leptin differed between adolescents with and without allergy symptoms. In regression models IgE was significantly associated with inadequate sleep duration and leptin with weight status.ConclusionExcess weight and inadequate sleep duration are independently associated with the incidence of allergy symptoms in adolescents. Adequate sleep duration and weight during adolescence might be relevant for a decreased risk of suffering allergy symptoms.
Highlights
Some health behaviours are liable to affect the incidence of allergies and/or common infections in young people; the extent and ways in which these might occur are mostly unknown
Excess weight was positively associated with the incidence of allergy (OR = 1.343, 95% CI 1.047, 1.723, P = 0.020, in the sex and age adjusted model), but showed no association with infections
In order to rule out the influence of hidden confounding factors, we tested if sleep duration and overweight/obesity status were associated and the analysis showed no association between them
Summary
Some health behaviours are liable to affect the incidence of allergies and/or common infections in young people; the extent and ways in which these might occur are mostly unknown. This study examines the association of health behaviours related to physical activity, sedentariness, diet and sleep with allergy and infection symptoms in adolescents, and with biological markers that might mediate disease incidence. The most frequent infectious diseases as well as the highly prevalent allergic diseases are a considerable burden to the Health Care system [1,2]. Prevention of both disease states would certainly benefit from a better understanding of the influence of relevant lifestyle factors and certain behaviours. Interactions among all these influencing factors might occur, making it difficult to reveal their true impact on disease development
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