Table 1.
Characteristics of included trials and study populations
| Primary article | Companion articles* and unpublished data |
Country, enrolment period | Age at last follow-up |
Number of participants† | Infant asthma risk |
Feeding Restrictions |
Caesarean delivery rate (%) |
Relevant outcomes included‡ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asthma | Wheeze | LRTI | ||||||||
| West 200935 | West 2008,61 West 201367 | Sweden, 2000-03 | 8 years | 179 infants | Unselected | None | 0 | Yes | Yes (I) | — |
| Abrahamsson 200725 | Abrahamsson 201328 | Sweden, 2001-03 | 7 years | 239 mothers (209 infants) | High (family history) | None | 13 | Yes | Yes (I) | — |
| Kalliomaki 200126 | Kalliomaki 2003,63 Kalliomaki 200730 | Finland, 1997-98 | 7 years | 159 mothers (155 infants) | High (family history) | None | Not reported | Yes | — | — |
| Niers 200933 | Gorissen (unpublished data),** data provided | Netherlands, 2004-05 | 6 years | 156 mothers (123 infants) | High (family history) | None | 10 | Yes | Yes (I) | — |
| Wickens 200836 | Wickens 2012,66 Wickens 201368 | New Zealand, 2004-05 | 6 years | 512 mothers (474 infants) | High (family history) | None | 32 | Yes | Yes (I) | — |
| Kukkonen 200732 | Kuitunen 2009,64 data provided | Finland, 2000-03 | 5 years | 1223 mothers (1018 infants) | High (family history) | None | 17 | Yes | — | — |
| Taylor 200727 | Prescott 2008,31 Jensen 201229 | Australia, 2002-05 | 5 years | 226 mothers (218 infants) | High (family history) | None | 44 | Yes | Yes (I, R) | Yes |
| Gore 201251 | None | UK, 2002-04 | 3 years | 137 infants§ | High (eczema) | FF required, BF permitted | Not reported | Yes¶ | Yes (I) | — |
| Ou 201234 | None | Taiwan, 2002-06 | 3 years | 191 mothers (151 infants) | High (family history) | None | Not reported | Yes | — | — |
| Dotterud 201021 | None | Norway, 2003-05 | 2 years | 415 mothers (363 infants) | Unselected | BF required | Not reported | Yes | — | — |
| Kopp 200855 | None | Germany, 2002-04 | 2 years | 105 mothers (104 infants) | High (family history) | None | 19 | — | Yes (R) | — |
| van der Aa 201158 | van der Aa 201060 | Netherlands, 2005-07 | 18 months | 90 infants | High (eczema) | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 18 | — | Yes (R) | — |
| Hol 200854 | Data provided | Netherlands, 2004-07 | 16 months | 119 infants | High (milk allergy) | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 19 | — | Yes (I) | — |
| Boyle 201149 | None | Australia, 2006-08 | 12 months | 250 mothers (250 infants) | High (family history) | None | 27 | — | Yes (I) | — |
| Maldonado 201256 | None | Spain, 2008-09 | 12 months | 215 infants | Unselected | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 45 | — | — | Yes |
| Chouraqui 200850 | None | France, 2004-05 | 12 months | 284 infants | Unselected | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 17 | — | — | Yes |
| Gruber 200752 | None | Germany, not reported | 10 months | 106 infants | High (eczema) | None | Not reported | — | — | Yes |
| Allen 201048 | None | UK, not reported (2004) | 6 months | 454 mothers (454 infants) | High (family history) | None | Not reported | — | — | Yes |
| Hascoet 201153 | None | France, not reported (2006) | 4 months | 79 infants§ | Unselected | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 8 | — | — | Yes |
| Puccio 200757 | Data provided | Italy, not reported | 4 months | 138 infants | Unselected | Exclusive FF at enrolment | 40 | — | Yes (I) | — |
Trials are listed in order of decreasing duration of follow-up.
BF=breastfeeding; FF=formula feeding; LRTI=lower respiratory tract infection.
*Excludes conference abstracts from which no unique data were extracted.
†Indicates mothers or infants randomised; where recruitment occurred prenatally, includes number of infants eligible at birth (in brackets).
‡I=incident wheeze; R=recurrent wheeze.
§Trial included additional groups (for example, observational) not considered in this review.
¶This trial reported asthma outcomes in the text only, and the authors declined to provide data for meta-analysis.
**Unpublished data from a forthcoming report provided by Gorissen DMW, Rutten NBMM, Oostermeijer CMJ, Niers LEM, Hoekstra MO, Rijkers GT, et al. Preventive effects of selected probiotic strains on the development of asthma and allergic rhinitis in childhood. The PandA study.