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Thorax 59:725-726
  • Letters to the editor

Consumption of milk fat and reduced asthma risk in pre-school children

Table 1

 Percentages and (numbers) of 2 year old children who consumed different foods on 6 or 7 days/week, crude prevalences of asthma and wheeze at age 3 in children who, at age 2, used different foods on a daily basis (“daily use”) compared with children with lower consumption frequencies (others) and adjusted odds ratios† for the relationship between daily consumption‡ of different foods at age 2 and prevalence of asthma and wheeze at age 3, stratified for parental allergy

Foods Percentage (n) daily users “Ever asthma” Recent asthma Recent wheeze
Crude % prevalence Adjusted OR (95% CI) Crude % prevalence Adjusted OR (95% CI) Crude % prevalence Adjusted OR (95% CI)
“Daily use” Others “Daily use” Others “Daily use” Others
*p<0.05, §p<0.10 for difference in asthma or wheeze prevalence between daily users and less frequent consumers.
†Adjusted for consumption frequencies of foods shown in the table, consumption frequency of semi-skimmed milk, consumption frequency of margarine, sex, birth weight, presence of older sibling(s), maternal education, having been breast fed for ⩾8 weeks, and parental smoking in the home.
‡For full cream milk and butter odds ratios are shown for daily consumption (on 6–7 days/week) compared with consumption less than once a week; for milk products and brown bread the prevalence of consumption less than once a week is less than 5% and therefore odds ratios are shown for daily consumption versus all others.
Neither parent allergic (n = 1816)
Full cream milk 31.2 (n = 567) 3.3* 6.0 0.44 (0.22 to 0.91)* 2.3* 4.5 0.37 (0.16 to 0.84)* 9.9* 14.0 0.67 (0.41 to 1.07)
Milk products 75.1 (n = 1364) 4.6 6.7 0.70 (0.43 to 1.14) 3.5 4.8 0.73 (0.41 to 1.30) 11.5* 16.2 0.70 (0.51 to 0.96)*
Brown bread 82.8 (n = 1503) 4.7 7.3 0.67 (0.39 to 1.15) 3.5 5.2 0.69 (0.36 to 1.30) 12.4 14.2 1.05 (0.72 to 1.54)
Butter 7.0 (n = 126) 4.0 5.2 0.80 (0.29 to 2.18) 2.4 3.9 0.59 (0.17 to 2.05) 8.2 13.0 0.53 (0.26 to 1.08)
Mother and/or father allergic (n = 1162)
Full cream milk 33.5 (n = 389) 6.6§ 9.8 0.62 (0.32 to 1.18) 5.0 7.3 0.65 (0.31 to 1.38) 17.6 18.5 1.00 (0.61 to 1.62)
Milk products 74.1 (n = 861) 8.1 10.4 0.77 (0.48 to 1.24) 6.4 7.0 0.92 (0.53 to 1.62) 17.0§ 21.7 0.67 (0.47 to 0.96)*
Brown bread 85.2 (n = 990) 7.8* 14.3 0.49 (0.28 to 0.83)* 5.8* 10.8 0.47 (0.26 to 0.87)* 17.9 20.0 0.91 (0.58 to 1.44)
Butter 6.3 (n = 73) 1.4* 9.2 0.13 (0.02 to 0.98)* 0* 7.0 0 6.8* 19.0 0.43 (0.15 to 1.23)
Only mother allergic (n = 295)
Full cream milk 32.9 (n = 97) 5.4 11.1 5.4 9.6 8.5* 19.2
Milk products 73.9 (n = 218) 8.9 10.1 8.4 7.5 16.0 14.8
Brown bread 84.8 (n = 250) 8.1 15.6 6.9§ 15.6 14.5 22.2
Butter 7.1 (n = 21) 0 9.9 0 8.8 1.0 16.8

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