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Childhood asthma and fruit consumption

Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK.

CORRESPONDENCE: P.G. Burney, Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, Emmanuel Kaye Building, Manresa Road, London SW3 6LR, UK. Fax: 44 2073518322. E-mail: p.burney{at}imperial.ac.uk

Keywords: Apples, childhood asthma, fruit, South London, wheeze

Received: July 26, 2006
Accepted January 24, 2007

The present authors investigated whether wheezing is less common in children who consume more apples and other fruits.

A population-based survey of 2,640 primary school children aged 5–10 yrs was carried out in Greenwich (South London, UK). Information about asthma symptoms and fruit consumption was obtained by means of a questionnaire.

After controlling for potential confounding variables, eating bananas at least once a day (compared with less than once a month) was negatively associated with current wheeze (odds ratio 0.66; 95% confidence interval 0.44–1.00) and ever wheeze (0.69 (0.50–0.95)), but not with ever asthma (0.80 (0.56–1.14)). Drinking apple juice from concentrate at least once a day (compared with less than once a month) was also negatively associated with current wheeze (0.53 (0.34–0.83)), weakly associated with ever wheeze (0.74 (-0.54–1.02)), but not associated with ever asthma. Consumption of apples, other fruits and orange juice was not significantly associated with asthma symptoms.

No association was found between eating fresh apples and asthma symptoms in the study population, but some evidence was found to suggest that a higher consumption of apple juice from concentrate and bananas may protect against wheezing in children.

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