Dietary Factors and Risk for Asthma: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis

Background: Previous research has found a link between dietary factors and asthma. However, few studies have analyzed the relationship between dietary factors and asthma using Mendelian randomization. Methods: The IEU Open GWAS project (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/) was the source of exposure and outcome datasets. The exposure datasets included Alcoholic drinks per week, Alcohol intake frequency, Processed meat intake, Poultry intake, Beef intake, Non-oily fish intake, Oily fish intake, Pork intake, Lamb/mutton intake, Bread intake, Cheese intake, Cooked vegetable intake, Tea intake, Fresh fruit intake, Cereal intake, Salad/raw vegetable intake, Coffee intake, and Dried fruit intake. The weighted median, MR-Egger, and Inverse Variance Weighted methods were used as the main methods of Mendelian randomization analysis. Heterogeneity and pleiotropic analysis were performed to ensure the accuracy of the results.

Results: Alcohol intake frequency (after removing outliers OR: 1.217; 95% CI: 1.048-1.413; p=0.00993) was related to an increased risk of Asthma. Fresh fruit intake (OR: 0.489; 95% CI: 0.320-0.748; p=0.000954) and Dried fruit intake (after removing outliers OR: 0.482; 95% CI: 0.325-0.717; p= 0.000312) were discovered as protective factors. Other dietary intakes found no causal relationship with asthma.

Conclusion: This study found that dried fruit intake and fresh fruit intake were associated with a reduced risk of asthma, and alcohol intake frequency was associated with an increased risk of asthma. This study also found that other factors included in this study were not associated with asthma.