Allergic disease in children is an increasing public health priority affecting one in five children in Australia.
Frequently one allergic disease will be followed by the next, like eczema followed by food allergies, then asthma and/or hayfever. Currently, over 50% of children endure multiple allergic diseases which puts significant burden on their families, school and the health care system.
With wait lists exceeding three years to see an allergy specialist, the estimated cost to Australians who suffer from allergy due to reduced quality of life is estimated at $21.5 billion. With no cure for allergies, prevention strategies are vital to reduce their development and prevalence, and improve the growing burden to children and their families.
The SYMBA Study, a nested project within ORIGINS, recruited 652 pregnant participants and their babies who received an antenatal prebiotic or placebo supplement. At the child's one year follow up, the study examined whether supplementing the mother's diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding with the prebiotic fibre reduced the development of allergies in her child.
SYMBA-3 is investigating whether supplementation with prebiotic fibre in pregnancy will reduce the risk of developing at least one medically diagnosed allergic disease in the first three years of life relative to the placebo group.
The study's secondary aims are to investigate whether the above supplementation will reduce the risk of developing a wheeze and/or asthma, hayfever, eczema, food allergies, allergen sensitisation and body mass index at three years of age.
Respiratory allergies usually occur after infancy, and multiple animal and human studies have found an association between high maternal dietary fibre intakes during pregnancy and reduced respiratory symptoms in the offspring. Therefore it's important that these allergy outcomes are assessed at three years old, as opposed to the previous SYMBA assessment completion at one year of age.
No intervention will take place, the study will simply examine the ORIGINS database for children of 3 years of age particpating in the SYMBA study.
If successful, this study could translate as a low cost prevention strategy for allergies within clinical pracitce, which could change national and international dietary and prevention guidelines and policies.
Investigators
- Clinical Associate Professor Kristina Rueter at the Child and Adolescent Health Service