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Lee, Ahn, Han, and Chung: Effects of Nutrition Education Promoting Vegetable, Fruit, and Fish Intake on the Severity of Atopic Dermatitis in Children: Results from a One-year Follow Up Study
Original Article

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2013; 18(5): 515-524.

Published online: 31 October 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2013.18.5.515

Effects of Nutrition Education Promoting Vegetable, Fruit, and Fish Intake on the Severity of Atopic Dermatitis in Children: Results from a One-year Follow Up Study

Heejin Lee, Kangmo Ahn1, Youngshin Han1, Sang-Jin Chung

Department of Foods and Nutrition, Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea.

1Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Sang-Jin Chung, 861-1 Jeongneungdong, Seongbukgu, Department of Foods and Nutrition, Kookmin University, Seoul 136-702, Korea. Tel: (02) 910-4777, Fax: (02) 910-5249, schung@kookmin.ac.kr

Received 19 April 2013       Revised 13 August 2013       Accepted 15 October 2013

Copyright © 2013 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

(open-access):

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is believed to be associated with the intake of antioxidant nutrients and fatty acids due to its immunological dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of nutrition education promoting vegetable, fruit, and fish intake on the severity of AD in children. Children with AD aged 6 months to 5 years were randomly assigned into education and control groups, and followed for 1 year. Seventy-six children completed the study (38 for control, 38 for education). The education group received education promoting the intakes of antioxidant-rich foods (vegetables, fruits) and n-3 fatty acid foods (fish). A 24-hour food recall was collected for the diet information. After education, all vegetables (p < 0.001), fruits (p < 0.01), and fish (p < 0.05) intakes per 1000 kcal increased significantly in the education group, whereas only vegetable intake increased in the control group (p < 0.001). The SCORAD index, the severity of atopic dermatitis, decreased significantly in the education group (p < 0.05). Increased consumption of dietary vitamin E was significantly associated with reduction in the SCORAD index, after adjusting for age and gender (p < 0.05). A nutritional education program to increase vegetable, fruit, and fish intake may be effective in reducing the severity of AD, and vitamin E intake may be associated with the decreased severity of AD. More controlled studies on the relationship between these intakes and severity of AD, with intensive diet and/or supplement intervention programs, are needed to obtain conclusive results.

Keywords: atopic dermatitis, children, severity, fruit and vegetable, vitamin E

Figures and Tables

Table 1
General characteristics of the subjects
kjcn-18-515-i001

1) N (%)

2) Mean ± SD

SCORAD: Scoring index of atopic dermatitis

Table 2
Comparison of nutrient intakes of subjects before and after nutrition education (per 1000 kcal)
kjcn-18-515-i002

1) Mean ± SD

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001: significantly different between pre-test and post-test by paired t-test in each group

Table 3
Comparison of vegetable,fruit and fish intakes of subjects before and after nutrition education (g/1000 kcal)
kjcn-18-515-i003

1) Mean ± SD

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001: significantly different between pre-test and post-test by paired t-test

#: p < 0.05: significantly different between control group and education group by student's t-test

Table 4
Comparison of SCORAD index of subjects before and after nutrition education
kjcn-18-515-i004

1) Mean ± SD

*: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001: significantly different between pre-test and post-test by paired t-test

#: p < 0.05: significantly different between control group and education group by ANCOVA after adjusting for age and sex

SCORAD: Scoring index of atopic dermatitis

Table 5
Severity change of Atopic Dermatitis by change of nutrient intakes per 1000 kcal
kjcn-18-515-i005

1) β coefficients and 95% CI were calculated by using simple and multiple linear regression analysis

SCORAD: Scoring index of atopic dermatitis

Notes

This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2007-331-C00281)

This work was supported by the research program 2012 of Kookmin University in Korea

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