The Association of Maternal Dietary Patterns With Asthma and Wheeze Diagnosis in Canadian Children

Abstract

Asthma affects over 850,000 Canadian children under 14, ranking among the top chronic childhood diseases. Prenatal dietary factors are hypothesised to influence its development. We examined associations between maternal prenatal dietary patterns and childhood asthma/wheeze in the CHILD cohort. Principal component analysis derived three dietary patterns (plant-based, Western, balanced) from food frequency questionnaires. Logistic regression and generalised estimating equations (GEE) models assessed associations with physician-diagnosed asthma (n = 1574) and recurrent wheeze (n = 1799-2374) at ages 1-3 years, adjusting for covariates. Among 2968 mother-child pairs, maternal asthma (OR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.10-4.18), paternal asthma/wheeze (OR = 2.14, 1.26-3.56), and gestational age (OR = 0.79, 0.67-0.93) predicted asthma risk. Maternal wheeze (OR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.05-2.38) and prior wheeze (OR = 4.30, 2.93-6.25) predicted recurrent wheeze. No associations were found between dietary patterns and asthma (plant-based OR = 1.40/1-point DS increase, 0.80-2.43; Western OR = 1.20, 0.86-1.65; balanced OR = 0.98, 0.74-1.26) or wheeze. While familial and perinatal factors strongly predict asthma risk, maternal prenatal diet patterns showed no association with childhood respiratory outcomes.

Keywords: CHILD; children's asthma; children's wheeze; cohort study; maternal diet; nutritional epidemiology.