. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Aug 1.

Published in final edited form as: Immunol Allergy Clin North Am. 2008 Aug;28(3):603–ix. doi: 10.1016/j.iac.2008.03.005

Table 3.

Selected epidemiologic studies relating dietary factors with asthma, asthma-related symptoms, and atopy

Author	Cohort or Country	Population and Study design	Dietary assessment method	Association
Antioxidant vitamins, flavonoids, and minerals
Schwartz & Weiss¹³⁶	NHANES II, US	9074 adults/cross-sectional	24-hour diet recall	Serum vitamin C inversely associated with wheezing and diagnosed bronchitis
Fogarty et al¹³⁷	Nottingham, UK	2633 subjects with allergy skin test results and 2498 subjects with total IgE/cross-sectional	FFQ	Higher vitamin E intake was inversely associated with total IgE concentrations and was associated with decreased odds for atopy.
McKeever et al	NHANES III, US	5858 adults and 4428 children	Serum levels of several nutrients	In adults, α-carotene, β-cryptoxantine, and vitamin E were inversely associated with atopy, but lycopene was positively associated with atopy; vitamin A increased the risk of atopy in children
Troisi et al⁴⁰	Nurses Health Study, US	77,866 nurses/longitude nal	FFQ	Positive association between vitamin C supplement users and the risk for asthma; Dietary vitamin E inversely associated with asthma; β-carotene weakly protective for asthma
Shaheen et al¹³⁸	Greenwich, South London, UK	607 cases, 864 controls (adults)	FFQ	Consumption of apples was inversely associated with asthma; Selenium intake inversely associated with asthma; No association between intakes of vitamin C and E and asthma
Garcia et al¹³⁹	Greenwich, South London, UK	607 cases, 864 controls (adults)	FFQ	No association between intake of three major classes of flavonoids and asthma
Okoko et al¹⁴⁰	Greenwich, South London, UK	2560 children aged 5–10 yrs/cross-sectional	FFQ	Banana consumption and drinking apple juice were negatively associated with wheeze but not asthma; Fresh apple consumption was not associated with asthma or symptoms
Chatzi et al¹⁴¹	Menorca, Spain	460 children aged 6.5 yrs/cross-sectional	FFQ	Fruity vegetable intake was inversely associated with current wheeze and atopic wheeze; fish intake was inversely associated with atopy
Chatzi et al¹⁴²	Crete, Greece	690 children aged 7– 18/cross-sectional	FFQ	Intake of local fruits and tomatoes was inversely associated with wheeze and allergic rhinitis but not atopy; adherence to the Mediterranean diet was inversely associated with allergic rhinitis
Sodium
Demssie et al¹⁴³	Montreal, Canada	187 cases and 145 controls aged 5–13 yrs	FFQ	No association of usual salt intake with asthma or exercise-induced bronchospasm; positive association with methacholine airway hyperresponsiveness
Fatty acids
Laerum et al⁸⁶	RHINE (Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden)	12,345 adults	FFQ	Low current fish intake was associated with greater odds of asthma and wheeze; for intake of cod oil, there was a U-shaped association with asthma
Tabak et al⁸⁷	ISAAC-2, Netherlands	598 children aged 8–13 yrs/cross-sectional	FFQ	Fish intake was inversely associated with current asthma and with atopic asthma with bronchial hyperresponsiveness; intake of whole grains was inversely associated with atopic asthma with bronchial hyperresponsiveness

RHINE – Respiratory Health in Northern Europe

ISAAC – International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood