title: Consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drinks in pregnancy and risk of child asthma and allergic rhinitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Past evidence has suggested a role of artificial sweeteners in allergic disease; yet, the evidence has been inconsistent and unclear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine relation of intake of artificially-sweetened beverages during pregnancy with child asthma and allergic rhinitis at 18 months and 7 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from 60,466 women enrolled during pregnancy in the prospective longitudinal Danish National Birth Cohort between 1996 and 2003. At the 25th week of gestation we administered a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire which asked in detail about intake of artificially-sweetened soft drinks. At 18 months, we evaluated child asthma using interview data. We also assessed asthma and allergic rhinitis through a questionnaire at age 7 and by using national registries. Current asthma was defined as self-reported asthma diagnosis and wheeze in the past 12 months. We examined the relation between intake of artificially-sweetened soft drinks and child allergic disease outcomes and present here odds ratios with 95% CI comparing daily vs. no intake.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At 18 months, we found that mothers who consumed more artificially-sweetened non-carbonated soft drinks were 1.23 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.33) times more likely to report a child asthma diagnosis compared to non-consumers. Similar results were found for child wheeze. Consumers of artificially-sweetened carbonated drinks were more likely to have a child asthma diagnosis in the patient (1.30, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.66) and medication (1.13, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.29) registry, as well as self-reported allergic rhinitis (1.31, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.74) during the first 7 years of follow-up. We found no associations for sugar-sweetened soft drinks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Carbonated artificially-sweetened soft drinks were associated with registry-based asthma and self-reported allergic rhinitis, while early childhood outcomes were related to non-carbonated soft drinks. These results suggest that consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drinks during pregnancy may play a role in offspring allergic disease development.
authors: Centre for Fetal Programming, Department of Epidemiology, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark. emaslova@post.harvard.edu
authors: Ekaterina
authors: E
authors: Maslova
authors: Marin
authors: M
authors: Strøm
authors: Sjurdur F
authors: SF
authors: Olsen
authors: Thorhallur I
authors: TI
authors: Halldorsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000139:chemically induced*; D002253:Carbonated Beverages / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D065631:Rhinitis, Allergic; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / Q000139:chemically induced*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents