Abstract
Vitamin D has been linked in some studies with atopy- and asthma-associated phenotypes in children with established disease, but its role in disease inception at community level is less clear.
To investigate associations between vitamin D status and biological signatures indicative of allergy and asthma development in children aged 6 and 14 years in Perth, Western Australia (32°S).
Serum vitamin D was assayed in 989 6-year-olds and 1380 14-year-olds from an unselected community birth cohort; 689 were assessed at both ages. Vitamin D levels were assessed as a risk modifier for respiratory and allergic outcomes at both ages, utilising previously ascertained phenotypic data. The predictive value of vitamin D levels at age 6 for development of clinical phenotypes at age 14 was also examined.
Serum vitamin D levels in children at both ages were negatively associated with concurrent allergic phenotypes; gender stratification revealed that this association was restricted mainly to boys. Further, vitamin D levels at age 6 were significant predictors of subsequent atopy/asthma-associated phenotypes at age 14.
In a non-selected community setting, children (particularly boys) with inadequate vitamin D are at increased risk of developing atopy, and subsequently bronchial hyperresponsiveness and asthma.
In a large unselected cohort, males with inadequate vitamin D at 14 and 6 years had increased atopy and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Low vitamin D at age 6 was a predictor of atopy and asthma at 14.
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