Greenlandic women´s lifestyle and diet during pregnancy and child risk for asthma, eczema and allergy: an ACCEPT-substudy

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Irene Møller Haugaard Rasmussen, Eva Cecilie Bonefeld-Jørgensen, Manhai Long
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019
• Subjects: pregnancy; lifestyle; diet; inuit; accept birth cohort; asthma; eczema; allergy; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Circumpolar Health; Climate change; greenlandic; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2019.1682421; https://doaj.org/article/673274e0e86d40eea15cce08afc55192

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are environmental chemicals bio-accumulating through the food chain. POPs can affect the foetal development of the immune, the neural and the reproductive system. POPs are endocrine disruptors and shown to interfere with child vaccination responses. Our hypothesis is that POPs interfere with the immune system increasing the risk of asthma, allergy and eczema. In a pilot cross-sectional study, we sent 120 questionnaires to Inuit mothers to elucidate the relation between smoking during pregnancy and the risk of child asthma, allergy and eczema, and the possible modifying effect of breastfeeding. Fifty-one mothers responded. We found that the risk of getting allergy among the offspring was higher when the mother had been smoking during pregnancy and the child being breastfed <12 months (OR = 5.67, 95% CI: 0.754; 42.58, p = 0.092). Furthermore, we found that children with eczema were predisposed of having asthma (OR = 19.6, 95% CI: 2.19; 176, p = 0.008), also allergy when breastfed >12 months (OR = 17.0, 95% CI: 1.02; 283, p = 0.048). Abbreviation: ACCEPT (Adaptation to Climate Change, Environmental Pollution, and Dietary Transition).