Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with challenge-proven food allergy in infants
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Available online 27 February 2013
Katrina J. Allen, MBBS, BMedSc, FRACP, PhDa, b, c, katie.allen at rch.org.au
Jennifer J. Koplin, PhDa, b, ∗, Anne-Louise Ponsonby, MBBS, PhDa, b, Lyle C. Gurrin, PhDa, d,
Melissa Wake, MD, FRACPa, b, e, Peter Vuillermin, MBBS, FRACP, PhDa, f, Pamela Martin, PhDa,
Melanie Matheson, PhDd, Adrian Lowe, PhDa, d, Marnie Robinson, MBBS, FRACPc,
Dean Tey, MBBS, FRACPc, Nicholas J. Osborne, PhDa, b, d, g, Thanh Dang, BSca,
Hern-Tze Tina Tan, BSca, Leone Thiele, BA, MNSca, Deborah Anderson, RNa,
Helen Czech, RNa, Jeeva Sanjeevan, MBBSa, Giovanni Zurzolo, BSca,
Terence Dwyer, PhDa, Mimi L.K. Tang, MBBS, FRACP, FRCPA, PhDa, b, c, David Hill, MBBD, FRACPa,
Shyamali C. Dharmage, MBBS, MSc, MD, PhDa, d
a Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria
b Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria
c Department of Allergy and Immunology, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria
d Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria
e Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria
f Child Health Research Unit, Barwon Health and Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria
g European Centre for Environment and Human Health, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
Background: Epidemiological evidence has shown that pediatric food allergy is more prevalent in regions further from the equator, suggesting that vitamin D insufficiency may play a role in this disease.
Objective: To investigate the role of vitamin D status in infantile food allergy.
Methods: A population sample of 5276 one-year-old infants underwent skin prick testing to peanut, egg, sesame, and cow’s milk or shrimp. All those with a detectable wheal and a random sample of participants with negative skin prick test results attended a hospital-based food challenge clinic. Blood samples were available for 577 infants (344 with challenge-proven food allergy, 74 sensitized but tolerant to food challenge, 159 negative on skin prick test and food challenge). Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were measured by using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Associations between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and food allergy were examined by using multiple logistic regression, adjusting for potential risk and confounding factors.
Results: Infants of Australian-born parents, but not of parents born overseas, with vitamin D insufficiency (≤50 nmol/L) were more likely to be
- peanut (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 11.51; 95% CI, 2.01-65.79; P = .006)
- and/or egg (aOR, 3.79; 95% CI, 1.19-12.08; P = .025)
allergic than were those with adequate vitamin D levels independent of eczema status.
Among those with Australian-born parents, infants with vitamin D insufficiency were more likely to have multiple food allergies (≥2) rather than a single food allergy (aOR, 10.48; 95% CI, 1.60-68.61 vs aOR, 1.82; 95% CI, 0.38-8.77, respectively).
Conclusions: These results provide the first direct evidence that vitamin D sufficiency may be an important protective factor for food allergy in the first year of life.
Fig 1. Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency open bar, ≤50 nmol/L) and deficiency (solid bar, ≤25 nmol/L) among various food allergy phenotypes (A)
and food allergy with and without eczema among infants with both parents born in Australia (B).
Compared with infants with neither eczema nor food allergy, vitamin D insufficiency was significantly more common in infants with food allergy with or without eczema (P < .005 for both comparisons) but not in infants with eczema alone (P = .87).
Vitamin D insufficiency was also significantly more common among infants with 2 or more food allergies compared with infants with 1 food allergy (P = .045).
Fig E2. Distribution of vitamin D levels in HealthNuts serum samples by parents’ country of birth (n = 708).
Wonder how many X more allergic to peanuts the immigrant children were (generally with dark skins) - the abstract does not say
Looks like those children with 10-20 ng were far more than 11X as allergic to peanuts than those with 0-20 ng
See also VitaminDWiki
- Allergy - Overview
- 3X more allergy to peanuts if child born with low UV – Feb 2011
- Peanut and Food allergies prevented by Vitamin D
- Crescendo of papers on Asthma, Allergy, and Vitamin D – Sept 2011 which has the following graphic
See also web
- As Peanut Allergies Rise, Trying to Determine a Cause New York Times Feb 2014
3X increase in 13 years, no mention of vitamin D