Association between maternal vegetable intake during pregnancy and allergy in offspring: Japan Environment and Children’s Study

The association between maternal diet during pregnancy and allergy in offspring remains contentious. Here, we examined the association between maternal intake of vegetables and related nutrients during pregnancy and allergic diseases in offspring at one year of age. A cohort of 80,270 pregnant women enrolled in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study were asked to respond to a food frequency questionnaire during pregnancy and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaire at one year postpartum. The women were categorized into quintiles according to the energy-adjusted maternal intake of vegetables and related nutrients. Using the categorizations as exposure variables, the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined for the allergic outcomes, including asthma, wheeze, atopic dermatitis, eczema, and food allergy, in the offspring per quintile at one year of age. Of the 80,270 participants, 2,027 (2.5%), 15,617 (19.6%), 3,477 (4.3%), 14,929 (18.7%), 13,801 (17.2%), and 25,028 (31.3%) children experienced asthma, wheeze, atopic dermatitis, eczema, food allergy, and some form of allergic disease, respectively. The aORs of each quintile of maternal vegetable intake for all allergic outcomes were close to 1.0 compared to the lowest quintile. The lowest aOR was found in the association of maternal cruciferous vegetable intake with asthma (aOR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70–0.96) and highest was found in the association of maternal total vegetable intake with atopic dermatitis (aOR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.04–1.31). The risk of allergic outcomes for the various nutrients related to vegetable consumption was close to 1.0. The maternal intake of vegetables and various related nutrients during pregnancy had little or no association with any of the allergic outcomes, including asthma, wheezing, atopic dermatitis, eczema, and food allergy, in offspring at one year.