Peripartum consumption of probiotic milk was associated with a decline in the incidence of atopic dermatitis in offspring, but other allergy-related diseases were not reduced in the children, the results of a randomized study indicate.
In a randomized study, 415 pregnant women drank eiher probiotic or placebo milk from 36 weeks’ gestation to 3 months postpartum. At 6 years follow-up, there was a lower cumulative incidence of AD in the probiotic group compared with the placebo group (OR = 0.64; 95% CI 0.39-1.07; p = .086; NNT = 10), Dr. Melanie Rae Simpson and coauthors from the Department of Public Health and General Practice Faculty of Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, reported.
The children’s incidence of other allergy related diseases, including asthma, atopic sensitization, and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, were not significantly changed by probiotic use, the investigators said in the report.
The findings suggest that perinatal probiotics prevent, rather than merely delay, the onset of childhood atopic dermatitis, the authors concluded.
Read the full article in BMC Dermatology.