Research paper
Diet during pregnancy and infancy and risk of allergic or autoimmune disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Study answer
What this study found
Probiotic supplementation during late pregnancy and lactation is associated with a reduced risk of eczema in offspring (RR 0.78; 95% CI 0.68–0.90; absolute risk reduction 44 per 1,000; I2 = 61%). Omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplementation during pregnancy and lactation is associated with reduced allergic sensitisation to egg at 1 year (RR 0.69; 95% CI 0.53–0.90; I2 = 15%); pregnancy-only supplementation showed a stronger effect for egg sensitisation (RR 0.55; 95% CI 0.40–0.76; I2 = 0%), and reduced peanut sensitisation (RR 0.62; 95% CI 0.40–0.96; I2 = 0%). No autoimmune outcomes were…
- Study & population
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational and interventional studies on maternal/infant diet and risk of allergic or autoimmune disease.
- Intervention
- Probiotic: Lactobacillus rhamnosus; 1-10 billion CFU per day; orally; started around 36–38 weeks gestation and continued through the first 3–6 months of lactation.
- Key limitation
- High risk of bias in many studies; substantial heterogeneity in exposures and outcome definitions; potential publication bias in observational analyses; inclusion of abstract-only publications; data not uniformly updated beyond 2017; inconsistent reporting of dosages across probiotic and fish-oil trials; no…
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Background There is uncertainty about the influence of diet during pregnancy and infancy on a child’s immune development. We assessed whether variations in maternal or infant diet can influence risk of allergic or autoimmune disease. Methods and find…