Heat-treated milk product consumption in infancy increases asthma risk: Study

Consumption of unprocessed cow's milk has been associated with a lower risk of childhood asthma and/or atopy. Not much is known about differently processed milk products.

A team of researchers conducted a study to study the association between the consumption of differently processed milk products and asthma risk in a Finnish birth cohort.

The researchers included 3053 children from the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) Nutrition Study. Asthma and its subtypes were assessed at the age of 5 years, and food consumption by food records, at the age of 3 and 6 months and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years. We used conventional and processing (heat treatment and homogenization)-based classifications for milk products. The data were analyzed using a joint model for longitudinal and time-to-event data.

The results of the study are as follows:

· At the age of 5 years, 184 (6.0%) children had asthma, of whom 101 (54.9%) were atopic, 75 (40.8%) were nonatopic, and eight (4.3%) could not be categorized.

· Consumption of infant formulas and strongly heat-treated milk products was associated with the risk of all asthma.

· Consumption of all cow's milk products, nonfermented milk products, infant formulas, and strongly heat-treated milk products was associated with nonatopic asthma risk.

· All these associations remained statistically significant after multiple testing corrections.

Thus, the researchers concluded that high consumption of infant formula and other strongly heat-treated milk products may be associated with the development of asthma.

Reference:

A study titled, "Consumption of differently processed milk products and the risk of asthma in children" by Katariina Koivusaari et. al published in the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

https://doi.org/10.1111/pai.13659