Childhood asthma and fruit consumption

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Fig. 1—
Plot of group adjusted odds ratios (OR) for asthma symptoms by frequency of consumption of apples, pears, bananas and miscellaneous fruits. a-d) ever had asthma, e-h) ever wheezed, i-l) current wheeze. CI: confidence interval. ^#: the reference group had less than one serving per month.

Table 1—

Distribution of baseline characteristics and their relationship to the prevalence of ever-asthma

^#: calculated for difference in prevalence between groups using Chi-squared tests.

Table 2—

Fruit consumption by age, sex, ethnicity and parents' educational status

Data are presented as n (%), unless otherwise stated. FS: fruit serving; JS: juice serving. The daily fruit and juice serving represent the proportions of children having at least one fruit or juice serving a day, respectively. ^#: calculated using Pearson Chi-squared tests.

Table 3—

Odds ratio(OR) for children’s asthma symptoms associated with frequency of apple intake

Outcome	Frequency of apple consumption	OR (95% CI) and significance level
Outcome	Frequency of apple consumption	Subjects n	Unadjusted	Adjusted
Current wheeze	<1 serving per month^#	165	1	1
	1 serving per month–1 serving per week	615	0.82 (0.51–1.33)	0.82 (0.51–1.33)
	2–6 servings per week	1090	0.62 (0.39–0.98)	0.64 (0.40–1.02)
	>1 serving per day	646	0.77 (0.47–1.24)	0.83 (0.50–1.36)
	p-value for trend		0.66	0.91
Ever wheeze	<1 serving per month^#	165	1	1
	1 serving per month–1 serving per week	616	0.81 (0.56–1.17)	0.82 (0.56–1.20)
	2–6 servings per week	1092	0.62 (0.44–0.89)	0.68 (0.47–0.98)
	>1 serving per day	651	0.68 (0.47–0.99)	0.78 (0.53–1.15)
	p-value for trend		0.05	0.37
Ever-asthma	<1 serving per month^#	163	1	1
	1 serving per month–1 serving per week	606	0.83 (0.56–1.24)	0.84 (0.56–1.26)
	2–6 servings per week	1081	0.50 (0.34–0.74)	0.54 (0.36–0.81)
	>1 serving per day	644	0.69 (0.46–1.03)	0.79 (0.52–1.20)
	p-value for trend		0.07	0.39

Table 4—

Apple juice consumption and asthma symptoms

Fruit juice category	Exposure	Subjects n (%)	OR (95% CI)
			Current wheeze		Ever wheeze		Ever-asthma
			Unadjusted	Adjusted	Unadjusted	Adjusted	Unadjusted	Adjusted
Apple juice from concentrate	<1 serving per month^#	914 (39.0)	1	1	1	1	1	1
	1 serving per month–1 serving per week	611 (26.1)	0.86 (0.63–1.16)	0.88 (0.64–1.21)	0.83 (0.66–1.05)	0.89 (0.70–1.14)	0.79 (0.60–1.03)	0.87 (0.66–1.15)
	2–6 servings per week	443 (18.9)	0.61 (0.42–0.88)	0.64 (0.44–0.94	0.78 (0.60–1.01)	0.86 (0.66–1.14)	0.71 (0.52–0.96)	0.82 (0.60–1.12)
	>1 serving per day	377 (16.1)	0.51 (0.34–0.78)	0.53 (0.34–0.83)	0.63 (0.47–0.85)	0.74 (0.54–1.02)	0.70 (0.51–0.97)	0.90 (0.63–1.28)
	p-value for trend		0.00079	0.003	0.002	0.055	0.018	0.400
Other apple juice	<1 serving per month^#	1156 (57.8)	1	1	1	1	1	1
	1 serving per month–1 serving per week	393 (19.6)	0.84 (0.59–1.21)	0.88 (0.61–1.28)	0.82 (0.62–1.07)	0.91 (0.69–1.20)	0.79 (0.58–1.07)	0.85 (0.62–1.17)
	2–6 servings per week	254 (12.7)	0.91(0.59–1.39)	0.93 (0.60–1.44)	0.73 (0.52–1.02)	0.90 (0.63–1.28)	0.68 (0.47–1.00)	0.79 (0.53–1.17)
	>1 serving per day	198 (9.9)	0.60 (0.35–1.02)	0.64 (0.35–1.14)	0.64 (0.44–0.94)	0.90 (0.63–1.28)	0.71 (0.47–1.09)	0.95 (0.61–1.49)
	p-value for trend		0.079	0.16	0.011	0.52	0.053	0.61

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