Correlation between dietary habits and airway allergy in children

• Main Authors: Pi-Chuan, 蔡碧娟
• Other Authors: 林以勤
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09177112856797650547

碩士 === 中山醫學大學 === 營養學研究所 === 99 === Modern research on the relation of dietary intake to allergy usually focuses on certain food containing allergens. There are few studies exploring if there is any relationship between food characteristics, based on traditional Chinese medical belief, and diseases of respiratory allergy. The current study was conducted to examine if there is any difference in food selection between children with and without respiratory allergic diseases, and whether there is relationship between food selection and symptoms of respiratory allergy. The cross-sectional study was conducted in an elementary school in Hsinchu City. A cluster random sampling scheme was employed to obtain a sample of two classes from each of the six grades, which resulted in a total sample of 720 students. The survey was conducted in half of the sampled students in August to September and in another half in November to December, resplectively, to control for the seasonal effect. Informed consent form and a structural questionnaire were provided to the parents or guardians of the children to obtain information on the childrens’ characteristics, level of physical activity, allergic history of the child and his/her parents, and dietary intake of the child. Overall there were 396 of the sampled students returning the questionnaire and the informed consent form. In the current analysis, a total of 198 students with complete questionnaire data was included. The students were first grouped into the controls, with asthma or allergic rhinitis, or with both asthma and allergic rhinitis. There were no significant differences in the mean age, sex distribution, height, weight, BMI, and the level of physical activity among the three groups. The proportion of children with family history of allergies was significantly higher in those with respiratory allergic problems than in the controls. Compared to the controls, children with respiratory allergic diseases had significantly higher intake in the category of neutral vegetable, and the intake of the category of neutral fruit was significantly higher in those with both asthma and allergic rhinitis, whereas the intake of the categories of cool fruit and cold vegetable was significantly higher in the controls, and the children with either asthma or allergic rhinitis had significantly higher intake of cold fruit. In terms of the proportion of each category, the controls were significantly higher in the intake of cold food. A result of 8 intake patterns were obtained by factor analysis, and it appeared that the scores of the 3rd factor, which was consisted of cold beverage, neutral fruit, and neutral light green vegetable, significantly differed among the groups. In conclusion, the results of this current study showed that dietary intake in food groups by traditional Chinese medical belief appeared to be different such that children with respiratory allergic diseases seemed to consume less cold foods than the controls.