Dietary anti-oxidants and symptomatic asthma in adults

Bipen D Patel ^1*, Ailsa A Welch ¹, Sheila A Bingham ¹, Robert N Luben ¹, Nicholas E Day ¹, Kay-Tee Khaw ¹, David A Lomas ¹ and Nicholas J Wareham ¹

¹ University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bip.patel{at}rdehc-tr.swest.nhs.uk.

Accepted 24 January 2006

Abstract

Objective: Several anti-oxidant nutrients have been reported to be inversely associated with asthma. The objective of this study was to assess the independent associations of these nutrients with asthma in adults.

Design: A nested case control study in 515 adults with physician-diagnosed asthma and 515 matched controls with dietary data obtained from seven-day food diaries.

Main outcome measures: Physician diagnosed asthma and current symptomatic asthma (diagnosed asthma and self-reported wheeze within the previous 12 months).

Results: Cases were similar to controls in age, sex, social class and daily energy intake, but had a lower median intake of fruit (132.1 g/day Vs 149.1 g/day, p0.05). 51.5% of the population reported zero consumption of citrus fruit, relative to these individuals, people who consumed >46.3 g/day had a reduced risk of diagnosed and symptomatic asthma (OR adjusted for potential confounders 0.59, CI 0.43-0.82, and 0.51, 0.33-0.79, respectively). In nutrient analysis, dietary vitamin C and manganese were inversely and independently associated with symptomatic asthma (adjusted OR per quintile increase 0.88, 0.77-1.00, vitamin C and 0.85, 0.74-0.98, manganese) but only manganese was independently associated with diagnosed asthma (0.86, 0.77-0.95). Adjusted plasma vitamin C levels were significantly lower in symptomatic cases (54.3 µmol/L) than in controls (58.2µmol/L, p=0.003).

Conclusions: Symptomatic asthma in adults is associated with a low dietary intake of fruit, the anti-oxidant nutrients vitamin C and manganese, and low plasma vitamin C levels. These findings suggest that diet may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for the development of asthma.

Keywords: anti-oxidants, asthma, diet, epidemiology

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