Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Feb 15;159(4):351-7.  Related Articles, Links  

 
Serum vitamin levels and the risk of asthma in children.

Harik-Khan RI, Muller DC, Wise RA.

Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of
Health, Baltimore, MD.

Dietary intake, especially of antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, and the
carotenoids, has been linked with the presence and severity of asthma. From the
Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), conducted
in the United States between 1988 and 1994, the authors selected 4,093 children
(aged 6-17 years) for whom relevant medical, socioeconomic, and anthropometric
data were complete. The children were 50.6% female, and 9.7% reported a
diagnosis of asthma. Bivariate analyses showed that asthma diagnosis was
associated with lower levels of serum vitamin C, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene,
and beta-cryptoxanthin. However, antioxidant levels may be surrogate markers
for socioeconomic variables such as race, poverty, tobacco exposure, or general
nutritional status. In logistic models that included age, body mass index,
socioeconomic variables, antioxidant levels, parental asthma, and household
smoking, the only antioxidants significantly associated with asthma were
vitamin C (odds ratio = 0.72 per mg/dl, 95% confidence interval = 0.55, 0.95)
and alpha-carotene (odds ratio = 0.95 per micro g/dl, 95% confidence interval =
0.90, 0.99). The odds ratio for asthma in the highest quintile of serum vitamin
C relative to the lowest was 0.65 (p < 0.05), whereas it was 0.74 for
alpha-carotene (p = 0.066). The authors concluded that low vitamin C and
alpha-carotene intakes are associated with asthma risk in children.

PMID: 14769638 [PubMed - in process]

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