title: Maternal fish consumption during pregnancy and risk of early childhood asthma.
abstract: Maternal fish consumption during pregnancy may affect children's asthma risk by modulating early-life immune development. Type of fish intake may be important because of differences in fatty acid content. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a nested case-control study, selecting subjects from the Children's Health Study, a population-based study of school-aged children in southern California. Cases had physician-diagnosed asthma and controls were asthma-free by age 5 years. Mothers or guardians provided information on fish consumption during pregnancy in telephone interviews. We computed odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) by using conditional logistic regression models that accounted for the sampling. In children born to mothers with a history of asthma, the OR of asthma was 0.20 (95% CI = 0.06-0.65) when mothers ate oily fish at least monthly during pregnancy compared with no consumption (p(trend) = 0.006). Maternal oily fish consumption during pregnancy did not benefit children of non-asthmatic mothers. In contrast, fish stick (a source of trans-fats) consumption during pregnancy increased asthma risk in children (OR = 2.04; 95% CI = 1.18-3.51). Our results suggest that maternal oily fish intake during pregnancy may protect offspring from asthma; however, eating fish sticks during pregnancy may increase asthma risk in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Muhammad T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Salam
authors.forename: Yu-Fen
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Langholz
authors.forename: Frank D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Gilliland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005399:Fishes; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D044242:Trans Fatty Acids / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D005395:Fish Oils; D044242:Trans Fatty Acids