Maternal Occupational Exposure and Breastfeeding Impact on Programming Child Allergy

Abstract

Introduction. Epidemiologic data suggest a possible association between maternal exposure to chemical substances and risk of childhood allergy in offspring. The overall beneficial effects of breastfeeding for infants’ growth, immunity, and development have been well documented, but its role in allergy prevention is controversial. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of maternal occupational exposure to chemical substances on programming allergy in 4–6 years children and to evaluate breastfeeding impact on these associations. Methods. This nested cases-control study included 645 mother-children pairs. Allergy was assessed by the standardized questionnaires. Logistic regression models were fitted to examine the associations as odds ratios (OR) between maternal occupational exposure, breastfeeding duration and the risk of allergy adjusted for relevant covariates. Results. As many as 67.0% of the mothers reported having occupational exposure to chemical substances more than 1 year before pregnancy. Children of mothers exposed at work to chemical substances had increased prevalence of allergy at 4–6 years age comparing with not exposed (32.6% and 25.0%, accordingly). Occupationally exposed to chemical substances mothers breastfeeding more than 3 months increased 4–6 years children allergy risk by 59 %, adjusted OR 1.59; 95% CI 0.80–3.16. These associations were robust to adjustment for covariates associated with allergy, such as maternal education, smoking during pregnancy, chronic disease, child’s gender, and low birth weight. Conclusions. Occupationally exposed to chemical substances mothers’ breastfeeding may be a predictor of allergy throughout the developmental trajectory of childhood. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the influence of chemical substances and breastfeeding on childhood allergy.