Prenatal Sugar Intake May Increase Asthma Risk in Offspring

Higher intake during pregnancy, in early childhood associated with childhood asthma development

FRIDAY, Dec. 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Increased maternal prenatal and early childhood intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and fructose is associated with increased odds of developing childhood asthma, according to a study published online Dec. 8 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Lakiea S. Wright, M.D., M.P.H., from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the correlation of maternal prenatal and early childhood intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and fructose with current asthma in mid-childhood. Food frequency questionnaires were used to assess maternal pregnancy (first and second trimester averages) and child (median, 3.3 years) intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and total fructose for 1,068 mother-child pairs.

The researchers found that comparing quartile 4 versus quartile 1, higher maternal pregnancy intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and total fructose correlated with increased odds of mid-childhood current asthma, after adjustment for pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and other covariates (odds ratios, 1.70 and 1.58, respectively). There were also correlations seen for higher early childhood fructose intake with mid-childhood current asthma in models adjusted for maternal sugar-sweetened beverages (odds ratio, 1.79) and after additional adjustment for mid-childhood BMI z-scores (odds ratio, 1.77).

"Higher sugar-sweetened beverage and fructose intake during pregnancy and in early childhood was associated with childhood asthma development independent of adiposity," the authors write.

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