Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Vitamin D Insufficiency is Strongly Associated with Challenge-proven Infantile Food Allergy in the Healthnuts Population-based Study
Section snippets
Rationale
Recent reports have shown a latitude gradient in food allergy prevalence with those furthest from the equator recording the highest admissions to hospital for food allergy related events. We aimed to investigate the role of Vitamin D in the development of infantile food allergy in Melbourne, Australia, a city with a high population prevalence of both Vitamin D insufficiency and food allergy and no Vitamin D food-chain fortification.
Methods
The population-based HealthNuts study screened 5,302 infants using skin prick tests. Serum was obtained from 358 with challenge-proven food allergy (peanut, egg and/or sesame), 242 with sensitisation only and 108 negative controls and was analysed for serum 25(OH)D using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The association between serum 25(OH)D and food allergy was examined using multiple logistic regression.
Results
Low vitamin D (<=50nM/L) at 1 year of age was associated with having a blood draw in winter or spring (OR 4.5, 95% CI 3.0-6.8), breastfeeding > 10 months (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.7), never consuming formula (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.2-5.0) and never consuming semi-cooked eggs (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.3). Infants with vitamin D insufficiency (26-50nM/L) and deficiency (<26nM/L) were more likely to be food allergic even after adjusting for these factors (adjusted OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0, 2.7, p=0.028 and aOR 3.7,
Conclusions
These results provide a rationale for investigation of fetal or early postnatal life factors and Vitamin D status and its impact on development of infantile food allergy.