SynthesisThe Cochrane database of systematic reviews2016
Polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in infancy for the prevention of allergy.
Synthesis in The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Trial
- Dietary and Plasma Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Are Inversely Associated with Asthma and Atopy in Early Childhood.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice · 2019Trial
- Diet Components, Immune Function and IgE-Mediated Food Allergy.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Systematic Evaluation of How Indicators of Inequity and Disadvantage Are Measured and Reported in Population Health Evidence Syntheses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Low serum adrenic acid levels in infants and subsequent food-induced anaphylaxis.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2024Article
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids Interact withNutrients · 2023Article
- Immunomodulatory effect of marine lipids on food allergy.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Review
- Nutritional Interventions to Prevent the Development of Atopic Diseases: A Focus on Cow's Milk Allergy.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2022Article
- Effective Ways to Prevent Allergic Diseases: Where Do We Stand?Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2022Article
- Perinatal and Early-Life Nutrition, Epigenetics, and Allergy.Nutrients · 2021Review
- The evidence for interventions in early childhood allergy prevention - towards a living systematic review: protocol.F1000Research · 2021Article
- Gut Microbial-Derived Metabolomics of Asthma.Metabolites · 2020Review
- The Impact of Milk and Its Components on Epigenetic Programming of Immune Function in Early Life and Beyond: Implications for Allergy and Asthma.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Review
- Fish Consumption at One Year of Age Reduces the Risk of Eczema, Asthma and Wheeze at Six Years of Age.Nutrients · 2019Article
- Evidence for lifestyle interventions in asthma.Breathe (Sheffield, England) · 2019Review
- Maternal Intake of n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids During Pregnancy Is Associated With Differential Methylation Profiles in Cord Blood White Cells.Frontiers in genetics · 2019Article
- Diet and Asthma: Is It Time to Adapt Our Message?Nutrients · 2017Review
- Review
- Nutrition and Allergic Diseases.Nutrients · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly dietary intakes may influence the development of allergic disease. It is important to determine if dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) given as supplements or added to infant formula prevent the development of allergy.
objectivesTo determine the effect of higher PUFA intake during infancy to prevent allergic disease. SEARCH
methodsWe used the standard search strategy of the Cochrane Neonatal Review group to search the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL 2015, Issue 9), MEDLINE (1966 to 14 September 2015), EMBASE (1980 to 14 September 2015) and CINAHL (1982 to 14 September 2015). We also searched clinical trials databases, conference proceedings, and the reference lists of retrieved articles for randomised controlled trials and quasi-randomised trials. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials that compared the use of a PUFA with no PUFA in infants for the prevention of allergy. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently selected trials, assessed trial quality and extracted data from the included studies. We used fixed-effect analyses. The treatment effects were expressed as risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We used the GRADE approach to assess the quality of evidence. MAIN
resultsThe search found 17 studies that assessed the effect of higher versus lower intake of PUFAs on allergic outcomes in infants. Only nine studies enrolling 2704 infants reported allergy outcomes that could be used in meta-analyses. Of these, there were methodological concerns for eight.In infants up to two years of age, meta-analyses found no difference in incidence of all allergy (1 study, 323 infants; RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.26; risk difference (RD) -0.02, 95% CI -0.12 to 0.09; heterogeneity not applicable), asthma (3 studies, 1162 infants; RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.35, I AUTHORS'
conclusionsThere is no evidence that PUFA supplementation in infancy has an effect on infant or childhood allergy, asthma, dermatitis/eczema or food allergy. However, the quality of evidence was very low. There was insufficient evidence to determine an effect on allergic rhinitis.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.