Dietary meat intake and risk of asthma in children: evidence from a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Many studies have been reported that dietary meat intake may be associated with the risk of asthma in children, but the results are inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of meat on the risk of asthma in children. METHODS: The databases PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated with random-effect model using Stata software. RESULTS: A total of 9 articles were included in this meta-analysis. Results from our study suggest that dietary meat intake 3 or more times per week compared with never/occasionally intake has no significant association with asthma risk among children (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 0.80–2.01, P = .308). Similarly, daily intake of meat did not affect the risk of asthma in children when compared with never/occasionally intake (OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.93–1.37, P = 0.234). In addition, no publication biases were detected in our meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: Dietary meat intake most probably is not a risk factor for asthma in children. Due to some limitations that exist in our study, more studies are needed to further assess the association between meat intake and asthma risk in children.