August 11, 2014

Vitamin A supplementation and risk of atopy: long-term follow-up of a randomized trial of vitamin A supplementation at six and nine months of age

Research article
Nicholas Kiraly12*Aliu Balde1Ida Marie Lisse1Helle Brander Eriksen13Peter Aaby13and Christine Stabell Benn13
1Bandim Health Project, Indepth Network, Apartado 861, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
2Gastro and Food Allergy, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Flemington Rd, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia
3Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA), Bandim Health Project, Statens Serum Institut, 5 Artillerivej, Copenhagen S DK-2300, Denmark
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BMC Pediatrics 2013, 13:190  doi:10.1186/1471-2431-13-190

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/13/190

Received:21 July 2013
Accepted:15 November 2013
Published:19 November 2013
© 2013 Kiraly et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

The World Health Organization recommends high-dose vitamin A supplementation (VAS) for children above six months of age in low-income countries. VAS has been associated with up-regulation of the Th2 response. We aimed to determine if VAS is associated with atopy in childhood.

Methods

Infants in Guinea-Bissau were randomly allocated VAS or placebo, either at six and nine months of age, or only at nine months of age. At six months of age, children were furthermore randomized to measles vaccine or inactivated polio vaccine. At nine months of age all children received measles vaccine. Children were revisited seven years later and skin prick testing was performed. Atopy was defined as a skin prick reaction ≥3 mm.

Results

40 of 263 children (15%) were atopic. Overall VAS had no significant effect on the risk of atopy (Prevalence Ratio 1.23; 95% CI 0.69-2.18). The Prevalence Ratio was 1.60 (0.66-3.90) for males and 1.00 (0.46-2.15) for females.

Conclusions

There was no significant effect of VAS in infancy on atopy later in childhood. The role of infant VAS in the development of atopy is still unclear.
Keywords: 
Atopy; Immunization; Measles vaccine; Vitamin A supplementation

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