A natural experiment of the impact of fruit supplementation on asthma symptoms in children

¹ Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, UK
² Directorate of Public Health East Midlands, Dept of Health, Government Office for the East Midlands, Nottingham, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andrew.fogarty{at}nottingham.ac.uk.

	Abstract

A high fruit intake may reduce the risk of asthma.

The English National Schools Fruit Scheme was introduced in the East Midlands region in June 2003; and the Eastern region in September 2004. We distributed questionnaires to children aged 4 to 6 years old in schools in May 2003. This was repeated in May 2004 when those in East Midlands had received free fruit for one year, and those in the Eastern region had not.

Responses were obtained in 2004 for 4971 (53%) and 5770 (54%) of children in the intervention and control regions. Despite an increase in fruit consumption in the intervention compared to the control region between 2003 and 2004, there was no difference between the two regions in the prevalence or severity of asthma symptoms after one year of fruit supplementation (Odds Ratio for wheeze in the past 12 months in intervention compared to control region 1.00, 95% CI: 0.88–1.14).

Providing free fruit at school for one year does not have any immediate effect on prevalence or severity of asthma in young children, although these data do not refute the hypothesis that a higher increase in fruit intake improves measures of asthma control.

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