The Effects of Early Life PUFA and R-TFA on AD: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The Effects of Early Life Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Ruminant Trans Fatty Acids on Allergic Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether early life natural exposure to fatty acid affects the AD risk.

The prevalence of Allergic Diseases (AD) is rising dramatically worldwide especially in more industrialized countries during the past two decades, representing a substantial disease burden of individuals and health service cost. Early life nutritional exposures could modify the gene expression and susceptibility of allergic diseases (AD), yet the effects of early life polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and ruminant trans fatty acids (R-TFA) on AD remain unclear.Therefore,the investigators performed the meta-analysis and systematic review to evaluate whether early life natural exposure to PUFA and R-TFA affects the AD risk.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Studies needed to provide endpoints of AD, and risk estimates [odds risk (OR), relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio (HR)] for PUFA or R-TFA as the exposure. We included English language articles only, while scanned titles /abstracts of non-English language articles to evaluate agreement with the results published in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Studies were excluded if they didn't report the profile of PUFA or R-TFA, or if they targeted participants with medical condition.