Maternal Vitamin D Status at Delivery and Allergic Outcomes in Early Adolescence: Prospective Findings from the...

Prenatal vitamin D exposure has been proposed as a potential determinant of immune development and subsequent allergic disease risk in offspring; however, long-term cohort data remain inconsistent.

We analyzed data from the KLOTHO birth cohort, including 98 adolescents with available allergic outcome assessment. A maternal-neonatal sub-cohort of mother-child pairs with available maternal and neonatal serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ [25(OH)D] measurements at delivery was used for vitamin D analyses. Allergic outcomes included asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema in offspring. Associations were evaluated using descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analyses, and logistic regression models.

Maternal 25(OH)D concentrations were not significantly associated with asthma (ρ = 0.075, p = 0.652), allergic rhinitis (ρ = 0.100, p = 0.556), or eczema (ρ = 0.131, p = 0.426). In crude logistic regression models, vitamin D concentrations were not associated with asthma (odds ratio (OR) per 10 nmol/L: 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78-1.48, p = 0.67), allergic rhinitis (OR: 1.05, 95% CI: 0.76-1.45, p = 0.77), or eczema (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 0.86-1.60, p = 0.31). Adjusted models including maternal age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), season of delivery, and ultraviolet exposure yielded similar non-significant findings, although analyses were limited by a reduced complete-case sample size.

In this prospective cohort with follow-up into early adolescence, vitamin D status at delivery was not associated with asthma, allergic rhinitis, or eczema in offspring. These findings support a lack of statistically significant association; however, potential non-linear relationships should be interpreted cautiously, given the modest sample size.