Asthma and lower airway diseaseNutrients and foods for the primary prevention of asthma and allergy: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Section snippets
Methods
This work was conducted and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines.16, 17 Included studies were all those relevant to children (ie, pregnant women, infants, and children ≤16 years) that investigated the role of nutrients and foods for the primary prevention of asthma and atopic disorders in children—that is, cohort, case-control, and
Results
Our searches identified 14,747 potentially relevant published papers; 62 of these satisfied our inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review (Fig 1).
We found no published RCTs; included studies used cohort (n = 21),18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 case-control (n = 15),39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 cross-sectional (n = 25),54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73
Discussion
This systematic review and meta-analysis has investigated the role of nutrients and foods for the primary prevention of asthma and atopic disorders in children age ≤16 years. Critical appraisal of studies suggested that there was a substantial risk of bias in this overall body of knowledge. The results were nonetheless somewhat suggestive of potentially beneficial associations of vitamins A, D, and E; zinc; fruits and vegetables; and Mediterranean diet, particularly in relation to asthma. In
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This project was supported in its entirety by a project grant awarded by the Chief Scientist's Office of the Scottish Government Health Department (CZG/2/396).
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.