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Folate levels related to pediatric asthma
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Higher maternal folate levels during pregnancy may increase the risk for developing pediatric asthma, according to study results.
Researchers from Oslo, Norway, sampled 507 mothers with children who recieved an asthma diagnoses by age 3 years and 1,455 mothers of children without asthma from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study to evaluate potential associations between folate levels during pregnancy and later asthma development. They measured folate levels in plasma collected in the mothers’ second trimesters for analysis.
“Norway provides an excellent opportunity to address the question of possible deleterious consequences of high folate intake during pregnancy because the food supply is not fortified,” Stephanie J. London, MD, DrPH, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, N.C., said in a press release.
Children born to mothers with plasma folate in the top quintile had an increased risk for asthma at 3 years old (OR=1.66; 95% CI, 1.16-2.37) when compared with children whose mother’s folate levels were in the bottom quintile, according to the researchers. When compared with a reference category of folate levels below the 70th percentile for nonusers of supplements, children with mothers whose levels fell between the 70th and 95th percentiles had an OR of 1.34 (95% CI, 1.03-1.73). Additionally, levels above the 95th percentile yielded an OR of 1.44 (95% CI, 1.08-1.93). The researchers also noted a trend of linear increase across quintiles (P=.007).
“These findings based on an objective marker of folate status and follow-up to [3 years old] extend our previous research based on reported supplement use and outcomes to 18 months. The next step is to follow up these children to an age when asthma can be more reliably diagnosed,” London said. – by Melissa Foster
Haberg SE. #505. Presented at: 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology; Feb. 26-March 2, 2010; New Orleans.