ASTHMA

Fruit and vegetable intakes and asthma in the E3N study

I Romieu¹, R Varraso^2,3, V Avenel⁴, B Leynaert⁵, F Kauffmann², F Clavel-Chapelon⁴

¹ Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México
² INSERM, U780, Villejuif, France
³ Université Paris 11, Kremlin-Bicêtre, France
⁴ INSERM, Equipe Nutrition, Hormones et Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
⁵ INSERM, U700, Paris, and Université Paris Diderot, Faculté de Médecine Xavier Bichat, Paris, France

Correspondence to:
Dr I Romieu
Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Av. Universidad # 655, Col Santa Maria Ahuacatitlan, 62508 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico; iromieu{at}correo.insp.mx

Background: A study was undertaken to investigate whether dietary intake predicted the prevalence of adult asthma among French women participating in the E3N study.

Methods: Of 68 535 women who completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1993 which included 238 food items, 2145 (3.1%) reported having asthma. The distribution of food intake was divided into quartiles (Q₁–Q₄) and the prevalence of asthma was compared between the different quartiles (lowest as reference) using logistic regression models on cross sectional data.

Results: After adjusting for age, body mass index, menopausal status, smoking status, total caloric intake, physical activity, and use of dietary supplements, women who had a greater intake of tomatoes (OR_Q1–Q4 0.85 95% CI 0.75 to 0.96, test for trend p = 0.02), carrots (OR_Q1–Q4 0.81 95% CI 0.72 to 0.92, test for trend p = 0.0003), and leafy vegetables (OR_Q1–Q4 0.82 95% CI 0.73 to 0.93, test for trend p = 0.0009) had a lower prevalence of asthma. Apples were marginally related to the prevalence of asthma. No other fruits or vegetables were significantly associated with asthma prevalence.

Conclusions: These results suggest that the intake of some vegetables may decrease the prevalence of adult asthma.

Keywords: asthma; fruit; vegetables; diet; women

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