Just 700 IU of vitamin D during pregnancy reduced rate of asthma at age 7 by 26 percent – Oct 2013

Vitamin D intake in mid-pregnancy and child allergic disease
- - a prospective study in 44,825 Danish mother-child pairs.

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2013 Oct 31;13(1):199.
Maslova E, Hansen S, Jensen CB, Thorne-Lyman AL, Strøm M, Olsen SF.

BACKGROUND: Past studies suggest that maternal vitamin D intake during pregnancy may protect against child wheeze but studies on asthma are limited. Our objective was to examine the relation between intake of vitamin D in mid-pregnancy and child asthma and allergic rhinitis at 18 months and 7 years.

METHODS: We examined data from 44,825 women enrolled during pregnancy in the longitudinal Danish National Birth Cohort (1996 - 2002). We estimated vitamin D intake from diet and supplements based on information from a validated food frequency questionnaire completed in gestational week 25. At 18 months, we evaluated child asthma using data from phone interviews. We assessed asthma and allergic rhinitis by self-report at age 7 and asthma by using records from national registries. Current asthma at age 7 was defined as lifetime asthma diagnosis and wheeze in the past 12 months. We calculated multivariable risk ratios with 95% CIs comparing highest vs. lowest quintile of vitamin D intake in relation to child allergic disease outcomes.

RESULTS: The median (5%-95%ile) intake of total vitamin D was 11.7(3.0-19.4) mug/day (68% from supplements). In multivariable analysis, mothers in the highest (vs. lowest) quintile of total vitamin D intake were less likely to have children classified with current asthma at 7 years (Q5 vs. Q1: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.96, P = 0.02) and they were less likely to have children admitted to the hospital due to asthma (Q5 vs. Q1: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.64, 1.00, P = 0.05). We found no associations with child asthma at 18 months or with allergic rhinitis at 7 years.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a weak inverse relationship between high total vitamin D and asthma outcomes in later, but not early, childhood. The data did not suggest a clear threshold of vitamin D intake above which risk of asthma was reduced.

PMID: 24176134

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See also VitaminDWiki

• Overview Asthma and Vitamin D
  There appears to be strong evidence that increasing vitamin D decreases asthma
  Some indication that if mothers have high vitamin D during pregnancy that child is 5X less likely to get asthma
• Breathing Category summary
• Overview Pregnancy and vitamin D which has the following summary
  

  IU	Cumulative Benefit	Blood level	Cofactors	Calcium	$*/month
  200	Better bones for mom with 600 mg of Calcium	6 ng/ml increase	Not needed	No effect	$0.10
  400	Less Rickets (but not zero with 400 IU) 3X less adolescent Schizophrenia Fewer child seizures	20-30 ng/ml	Not needed	No effect	$0.20
  2000	2X More likely to get pregnant naturally/IVF 2X Fewer dental problems with pregnancy 8X less diabetes 4X fewer C-sections (>37 ng) 4X less preeclampsia (40 ng vs 10 ng) 5X less child asthma 2X fewer language problems age 5	42 ng/ml	Desirable	< 750 mg	$1
  4000	2X fewer pregnancy complications 2X fewer pre-term births	49 ng/ml	Should have cofactors	< 750 mg	$3
  6000	Probable: larger benefits for above items Just enough D for breastfed infant More maternal and infant weight		Should have cofactors	< 750 mg	$4