Consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drinks in pregnancy and risk of child asthma and allergic rhinitis

PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e57261. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057261. Epub 2013 Feb 27.

Abstract

Background: Past evidence has suggested a role of artificial sweeteners in allergic disease; yet, the evidence has been inconsistent and unclear.

Objective: To examine relation of intake of artificially-sweetened beverages during pregnancy with child asthma and allergic rhinitis at 18 months and 7 years.

Methods: We analyzed data from 60,466 women enrolled during pregnancy in the prospective longitudinal Danish National Birth Cohort between 1996 and 2003. At the 25th week of gestation we administered a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire which asked in detail about intake of artificially-sweetened soft drinks. At 18 months, we evaluated child asthma using interview data. We also assessed asthma and allergic rhinitis through a questionnaire at age 7 and by using national registries. Current asthma was defined as self-reported asthma diagnosis and wheeze in the past 12 months. We examined the relation between intake of artificially-sweetened soft drinks and child allergic disease outcomes and present here odds ratios with 95% CI comparing daily vs. no intake.

Results: At 18 months, we found that mothers who consumed more artificially-sweetened non-carbonated soft drinks were 1.23 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.33) times more likely to report a child asthma diagnosis compared to non-consumers. Similar results were found for child wheeze. Consumers of artificially-sweetened carbonated drinks were more likely to have a child asthma diagnosis in the patient (1.30, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.66) and medication (1.13, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.29) registry, as well as self-reported allergic rhinitis (1.31, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.74) during the first 7 years of follow-up. We found no associations for sugar-sweetened soft drinks.

Conclusion: Carbonated artificially-sweetened soft drinks were associated with registry-based asthma and self-reported allergic rhinitis, while early childhood outcomes were related to non-carbonated soft drinks. These results suggest that consumption of artificially-sweetened soft drinks during pregnancy may play a role in offspring allergic disease development.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Asthma / chemically induced*
  • Carbonated Beverages / adverse effects*
  • Child
  • Cohort Studies
  • Drinking Behavior*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Pregnancy
  • Rhinitis, Allergic
  • Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / chemically induced*
  • Risk Factors
  • Sweetening Agents / adverse effects*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Sweetening Agents

Grants and funding

Declaration of all sources of funding: the study was supported by the Danish Council for Stra-tegic Research (09-067124); the Danish Council for Independent Research | Medical Sciences, Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (09-063410); the Lundbeck foundation (R13-A907); and the European Union (EU) Integrated Research Project EARNEST (FOOD-CT-2005-007036). The EU project EARNEST (http://www.metabolic-programming.org) receives financial support from the Commission of the European Communities under the FP 6 priority 5: food quality and safety. The Danish National Birth Cohort has been financed by the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the Danish Heart Association, the Danish Medical Research Council, and the Sygekassernes Helsefond, Danish National Research Foundation, Danish Pharmaceutical Association, Ministry of Health, National Board of Health, Statens Serum Institut. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.